Sphinx
by Irruptive Influence
Summary: The three of us in no way shape or form own Worm. This is a compilation of a RP by the three owners of Irruptive Influence. Please enjoy!
1. Chapter 1- Mimi

Hi, welcome to a collaborative RP, played by the three of us who own Irruptive Influence. This has been a project we've been working on since around the middle of June and as of recently have been able to compile into documents that make at least some sense (hopefully). As for the one who's writing this note, you can call me Morrigan. I'll stop rambling on about how long this has been going on and what we're planning, maybe let the other two say something 'bout it themselves later on. But now _I'm_ here to share some of our inside jokes that have come along as we've been writing this monster of a piece. I'll share a little something at the beginning of each chapter. So for now, let's begin!

"I know you can't see it, but she's currently flipping me off."

* * *

Mimi Corona gazed with no small amount of satisfaction as the thirty-one students before her finished the set of jumping jacks that she had instructed them to do. As anticipated, their levels of stamina varied widely within the class, from the muscular football player that seemed utterly bored with the exercise, to the heavily overweight girl at the back corner that had stopped partway through. It was a start, though, regardless; everyone had a starting point, after all.

Her thoughts were thoroughly interrupted, however, as her phone buzzed in her pocket. Not her regular phone, the one she used to keep in contact with her friends in her right pocket. No, it was the other one, in her back pocket. Her heart seemed to freeze.

Snake-Eyes. He had known what her job was, what her hours were, before she had ever told him. That he was calling her now, it was incongruous with his previous behavior.

Either this was some kind of test... or it was even more serious.

Mimi moved one hand onto her back pocket, letting it rest there as she called out to her class. "When you finish the jumping jacks, it's onto the pushups. We're going to continue following regimen I put on the board." She paused for a moment as she saw some people groan and nearly winced. She knew better than to keep Snake Eyes waiting but, she needed to get everyone occupied first. "If you finish the pushups before I finish with this call you guys can get a water break, okay?" She relented as she pulled out her phone and held it up, screen facing towards her. There were some enthusiastic nods from the group, but some were still disappointed and, despite that, she knew there would still be those who would try to eavesdrop. Teens loved to gossip, she knew that far too well herself. So, she carefully accepted the call and placed the phone to her ear before answering with a slightly tense, "Hello?"

"Good afternoon," came a purr from the other end of the line. As always, Snake-Eyes sounded like he knew something that everyone else didn't; it was something of a constant state, with him, but it was well-deserved. His team had seen more than enough success under his leadership, as Mimi knew firsthand. "I realize I am catching you at an inconvenient time," he continued, without waiting for her to acknowledge him. "But something of a... situation has come to my attention. I believe that it would be best for us to convene, at the earliest opportunity."

In spite of his constant confidence, even now, something about his call was odd. Snake-Eyes - Jordan, as she had heard him called - was not someone that broke protocol, defied the rules set in place, be they informal or otherwise. At least, not when the rules were ones that he set himself. He had assured Mimi in the past that he would not call her while she was on school grounds, and yet, here he was, leaking an apparent self-assuredness into her ear as her students toiled mere meters away. Something was not right.

"What could be the problem?" She asked as she looked over her wards. She tried to add a light tone to her voice as she continued, "I'm a bit busy, so sorting this out quickly would be best for me at least, not so certain if that would be the same for you, though."

"Let's not be so hasty," Snake-Eyes replied. His voice had hardened; his tone served as an admonishment, now. "I do not require that you leave your..." A pause. "Pastime so unexpectedly. Keeping up appearances is crucial. But this is not something to be ignored. The moment that you are free of that infernal educational endeavor, you are to meet us at Designation Gamma. You will be the last to arrive. Be in costume, if you please," he added, and it was clear that it was not a request. "We will need our best game faces on, potentially tonight. Knowing you are aware of the gravity of the situation, given context, I don't suppose you might entertain my previous suggestion?"

Suggestion. The one where she finally drag Eris into all of this.

She paused as she contemplated it for not the first time. Eris was an amazing friend, if not slightly hurt from her time as a ward of the state. She knew it was probably wrong for her to want to have more in their group than just Garet to be cool with, for a lack of better terms, but Eris was pretty much just one step short of being on the team herself. She knew all of their goings on, she knew everything about it all, even that Mimi herself was a villain. It wouldn't be much more to ask Eris to finally join them... not when they had already come up with so many ideas for her. But, ultimately, it wasnt Mimi's choice, even if she already knew what Eris would probably say. After that moment had passed, she responded. "I'll ask her. It's not up to me. She's a bit of a... free spirit if you will. I will show up as soon as possible though and yes, I'll make sure I look _presentable."_

"Wonderful," Snake-Eyes murmured, his voice almost musical. Without even a pause, he continued: "I look forward to meeting her. This will be enjoyable, to be sure."

With that, the line went dead, as Snake-Eyes hung up.

Mimi sighed as she ended the call to stop the drone and slid her phone back into her pocket. She glanced around the room and sighed as she realized some of the class had started slacking off while she was distracted. "If you aren't on a water break it's time for laps!"

Many groans echoed throughout the gym as the coach slowly recovered and got her class back under control. The call from Snake Eyes had her slightly rattled, but she couldn't let it weigh her down. Luckily, the next class period went by easily and Mimi was free to head home. The car ride home was rather uneventful, though she let herself recall her conversation with the 'boss' as she drove. He seemed confident that Eris would be coming, though she wasn't certain why. She hadn't given perfect confirmation, though she supposed she couldn't ask about it now.  
Mimi parked the car up on arriving at the apartment and grabbed her bag before running through the door.

The house, surprisingly was tidy, and Eris was lounging on the couch, watching tv, feet propped up on a wooden table. "Hey, Mimi," she grinned; the look was almost fiendish. "How were the devils?"

"My children are not devils," she replied with a huff as she tossed her things next to Eris and ran to the next room to grab a different, yet identical bag.

"Might as well be." She huffed. She paused as she noticed the new bag. "You're going out?"  
Mimi nodded. Then paused. "The boss... would like you to come. Join us, I mean," she added, almost as a second thought.

The redhead's earlier grin widened as she suddenly hopped up. "You mean it? Of course! FUCK YES!" She screamed and Mimi nearly threw her hands over Eris' mouth to quiet her.

"We're going to get a noise complaint because of you one day."

"Probably."

About twenty minutes later, the two girls were encroaching on the gathering point. At some point on the way there, Mimi had dropped the bag and changed out of her tracksuit, into a pair of black tights, and a short, deep blue skirt, as well as a blue long-sleeved top. Her hair was let down and a black bandana covered all but one eye of her face. The woman gave a small smile beneath the covering on her face. She was Xana, a villainess of Madison now.

Eris had a similar getup, the only real differences being the coloring, lack of a skirt, and her mask. Eris was covered head to toe in a black outfit and had found a cheap plastic mask, a yellow one, that showed nothing but her two eyes. Her red hair was concealed by a white wig she had found somewhere.

Mimi and Eris had worked together one day to try to figure out what exactly to call Eris' caped self. The results had ranged from Mach to Zealous, but eventually, Eris had just given up. Mimi hadn't though, and finally, they had settled on the name Alacrity for her.

The hideout was something of a thrown-together affair, but it was not without its advantages. It was in a slightly seedy part of town, and the outer appearance of the building was shoddy at best. Walking through the door, however, gave way to a very different affair.

The inside of the seemingly dilapidated structure looked more like a nightclub than a crappy house, though the neon lights and other such ornamentations were switched off, which gave the spacious single room something of a somber vibe. Mimi was aware that Snake-Eyes - who was nowhere to be seen - had connection with multiple teams, but she immediately recognized those that were in her usual group: Slugsicle, Blunderbuss, Hellion, Architorque, and Redthatch. Slugsicle was the first to make his way towards her, while Blunderbuss merely eyed her disdainfully before turning away to deliberately mind his own business.

"Hey," Garet - Slugsicle - said. He provided no follow-up.

Xana smiled to him. "Nice to see you, Slug." She paused. "We can go sit if you'd like. Also the boss is still out, huh?" The woman huffed as she led the hulking man towards a series of seats. As she sat down, she glanced towards Alacrity, who hadn't really moved since they had entered the place. She was still except for her head, which was twitching around as she took in every detail of the room. Xana knew that, if she could've seen beneath her friends mask, the impish grin had returned. The woman let out a sigh of amusement as she rested her chin in her hand.

Slugsicle followed her, and parked his massive form beside her when she sat. He was nearly seven feet tall, though the villainess wasn't sure whether or not that was a consequence of his power, or if he had simply always been enormous. His mask took the appearance of the upper half of a skull sculpted from ice, just thick enough to hide his features behind a pale blue haze; though, rather than ice, it had actually been crafted from a ballistic polymer that would stop even a sniper rifle round head-on. Xana knew, as his head turned back towards the newcomer, that the mask would give her just as much indication as to his thoughts as his actual expression would; he was something of an inscrutable man. Rather than speak, he simply caught Xana's eye, jerked a thumb in her direction, and cocked his head quizzically.

He wasn't the only one that had noticed her, either. Architorque and Redthatch were conversing in hushed tones, their gazes darting back and forth between Eris and where Mimi and Garet sat. She knew they would approach before too long.

"I suppose I should introduce her." She mused, mostly speaking to Garet. Mimi then raised her voice so that the rest of the group could hear her. "This is Eris, or Alacrity. She's a friend." She lowered her voice again as Alacrity noticed she was being introduced and gave a little wave. "Snake Eyes asked me to bring her." She paused as she looked around. "Speaking of him, I expected him to be here already." As she finished her sentence, Eris finally made her way back towards Mimi and sat down.

That seemed to be the impetus that Architorque and Redthatch needed to approach, though they split up as they made their way closer. Architorque made her way over to Eris, while Redthatch approached the two of them. Blunderbuss remained where he was, observing the others.

"Friend of yours, huh?" Redthatch commented as he stood beside Mimi, resting one hand on the back of her chair and leaning on it. "This is the roommate you've mentioned, isn't she?" He offered her a genial grin.

He had always managed to come across as friendly but distant simultaneously, as though he were putting on an act. He was always kind and friendly, but his delivery seemed hollow, perhaps because he reacted to just about everything the same way. He was most certainly the most colorful of them; his very dark skin was complemented by a white mask that covered the top half of his face and proceeded up to his hairline, where it turned into a brilliant shock of wild crimson hair that went in just about every different direction. The rest of his costume was similarly disorderly; he wore white armor panels with seemingly random streaks of blood red arcing over them that covered his shoulders and his chest, but left his midriff bare, exposing very - distractingly - well-toned abs. His wrists and ankles sported tufts of fur that were similar to his hair, and his arms and legs sported white armor that looked as though they might have been meant for roller-blading. In spite of his bizarre appearance and his slightly-too-friendly demeanor, he was more than pleasant to be around.

Architorque, for her part, was much more elegant, both in appearance and in the way she carried herself. She approached Eris gingerly, her hands folded behind her back. "Hello there, Alacrity," she greeted warmly; she spoke with an accent that was difficult to place. "Will you be joining our little gang, then?" Her eyes were a shocking icy blue, while her costume was a simple yet aesthetically pleasing. She wore a white, skin-tight body suit supplemented by sleek pieces of black armor over her chest, legs, forearms, and shoulders. Her mask was built of the same material as her armor, and served to cover everything beneath her eyes, reaching up to obscure almost the entirety of her nose with a point at the center. Her black, flowing hair was tied into a tight, neat ponytail.

Xana casually crossed her legs and leaned back in the chair as she replied. "She is. Though, if you plan on messing with her, it's your funeral, Redthatch." She gave a small smile. "She doesn't need anyone to protect her, but she can have a slight temper."

At that, she received an elbow to the ribs from Alacrity herself, who managed an even tone as she replied to Architorque. "I hope so. Honestly, this is the first time I've been able to really claim the identity of being a cape out in public. But... anyways, Mimi has told me about all of you," she laughed. "I imagine that this will be nice, and a definite change from all my dead end jobs, though I suppose I'll still need to keep taking those." The girl toyed with her snowy white hair as she let out a sigh. "I don't even know if your boss is taking me for certain though, so I won't make any presumptuous decisions."

Mimi laughed. "Look at you, using big words." Clearly, she hadn't learned from her earlier mistake and earned another elbow to the ribs, which just led to more laughter, from both of them however.

Redthatch chuckled, and leaned back to put his hands up, as though in surrender. "Hey, hey, c'mon now. I'm not lookin' to step on any toes. Just curious about the new girl, can you blame me?" He fell silent, though as Eris came towards them, with Architorque in tow. She answered Eris's thoughts once the laughter had subsided.

"Snake-Eyes is an odd one," she remarked casually. "Lord knows what his motivations are, sometimes, and where he gets the information that he acts one. So it is, with thinkers," she added, throwing up an exaggerated shrug.

"I've been called worse," came a smug voice from behind her. She looked back over her shoulder.

"Fashionably late again, Snake?"

Snake-Eyes, too, was in costume. He wore what appeared to be black military fatigues, PRT-style body armor, and a black mask that covered the entirety of his face. Two uncomfortably bright red lights shown through the mask where his eyes should have been.

"Naturally," he purred. "I must keep up appearances, after all."

His gaze swept slowly over the room, until his eyes fell on Eris. "Ahhh," he drew out the sound, making it clear that he was completely unsurprised by her presence. "Our lovely little greenhorn is here. How are you, my dear?"

She paused as she took in the newcomer's appearance. The laser-like eyes unnerved her slightly, but Eris responded. "I'm doing alright. I'm surprised you wanted me to come here," she motioned to the room. "Though, I suppose a thinker has his reasoning." She used the information that she had been given and shrugged. "I'm sure you have some use for me, otherwise you wouldn't have asked for me to come in the first place." She tapped a finger on the plastic of her mask, producing a small clicking sound. She went quiet before continuing again. "Thank you, though, for the invitation in the first place. It's nice to see all the people Mimi has spoken of."

The mentioned cape gave a small smile at how quickly Architorque seemed to get along with Eris, but frowned slightly at Snake-Eyes. She too was still uncertain as to why he was so interested in her roommate, but she knew that something would come of it. However, the woman was still slightly annoyed that her boss had called her while she was at work, though she chose not to mention it. She figured that he probably already knew exactly how she felt at that.

"Mm, lovely, lovely," Snake-Eyes answered, his eyes suddenly shifting as he turned his head and walked to be at the head of the group, in front of the seats; it was difficult to tell if his tone was absent or dismissive, but either way he moved on without delay. "Now then, I'm sure you're all wondering why I've gathered you together so suddenly," he said. "Naturally, there are a few things to bring to light. You've all already met our exquisite potential new member, who I believe will benefit us profusely. Would you like to inform us about your power at this juncture, that would be wonderful," he added, his gaze shifting back to Eris again.

Eris obliged, though stiffened a bit. "I.. run pretty much. The faster I run, the stronger I get." She shrugged. "I need a little time to go super fast though and I work well when not in enclosed areas." She hesitated slightly before adding one more thing. "I just haven't gotten to work with it all that much. Don't get me wrong though, I will work hard though." She looked around the room one more time before letting out a small sigh of relief and took a far more relaxed position.

"I believe you will," Snake-Eyes replied, still staring directly at her. "Now then, the other reason I have gathered you post-haste today is this: I have a source in the PRT that has informed me of something rather alarming: it seems that the Triumvirate's very own Legend has made his way to Madison, and is currently residing in the Protectorate headquarters. As it seems unlikely that we will see an Endbringer attack here any time soon, and the Slaughterhouse 9 were seen in Eastern Europe just three days ago, it means that there is likely a lesser-known S-class threat either on its way or already here. I believe it would behoove us to figure out what this entails; I imagine that you all agree?"

A somber silence followed his words. After a few long moments, Architorque spoke up: "How are you so sure that this is an S-class threat?" she asked. "I mean-"

"Uh, it's Legend," Blunderbuss spoke up for the first time since Mimi and Eris had entered the room. his voice was somehow both nasally and gravelly, in a way that made him sound uniquely unpleasant. "He's not in the middle of Buttfuck, Nowhere to do his fucking groceries."

Redthatch rolled his eyes. "I mean, I guess it's true he could be here for other reasons. But have we really ever known him to leave New York unless there was a really serious reason? I can't think of one, off the top of my head."

"Suffice it to say," Snake-Eyes interrupted before things could derail further. "We should probably determine why he is here. Either it isn't serious, and we will have that piece of mind, or it is, and we should probably know what is happening."

"Agreed," Xana murmured. She was slightly worried about the fact that Snake was getting Eris involved with something like this, but it couldn't be helped at this point. Needless to say, this was potentially a very dangerous first mission for her friend to be on. "So I assume we plan to avoid Legend's radar, while trying to figure out what our major potential problem could be?"

Alacrity shivered and one of her legs began bouncing, for the girl it was both a distraction and a way to concentrate. "Won't that be hard though?" she murmured. "And what if we happen to get caught up in this threat? What then?"

"Correct," Snake-Eyes said. "We would be well served to keep our activities low-key, for the time being."

"Ughh," Blunderbuss grumbled. "What a pain in the ass."

" _Uh, it's Legend,_ " Redthatch mimicked him, a long grin splitting his face. "Weren't you the one that was sucking his dick earlier?"

"Shut up, _Redsnatch_ ," Blunderbuss fired back. "My power is just useless when it comes to the subtle things, and you know it."

"Just the subtle things?" Redthatch winked at him. Blunderbuss opened his mouth to respond, but Snake-Eyes interrupted him.

"At any rate," he said, clearing his throat to snag back the attention of the room. "It seems quite likely that the Protectorate here in Madison will have information on why he is here. Dealing with them without getting the attention of Legend might be rather difficult, so I have another plan. It seems likely that at least a number of the Wards will also have been given at least some details on the situation, given a little bit of time. Tonight, we shall attempt to... briefly accost one of them. We keep our level of engagement as gentle as possible, and we won't be worth Legend's time. Do any of you have any suggestions?"

"I don't know exactly how we'll get one of them to wander off, but I definitely know torturing isn't our best option for information retrieval," Mimi hummed. "Likely would get us in deep trouble, not that we won't be for doing this in the first place."

Despite her more passive nature in this, Eris for a moment was slightly stunned at how dismissively her friend said such things. Not because of the job, Eris knew that much herself, but that it was _Mimi_ saying torture might have been an option in the first place.

Xana continued, "We'd probably need a distraction though, one that would warrant attention, but only enough to get who we want."

Snake-Eyes nodded. "Torture is out. If we torture a young Ward while Legend is in town, he would be motivated - no, obligated - to handle the situation. If they pin it on us, we won't last a day." Blunderbuss grumbled under his breath again, but everyone seemed to ignore him.

"When it comes to distractions, Xana, you and Hellion are probably our best bet. Take an hour, work with him, and come to me with ideas. You are welcome to include Alacrity in this as well; after all, she will need to prove herself before too long."

Hellion stepped forward at the mention of his name. His costume was a drab one; simply a black bodysuit, with black body armor. A handgun graced each hip, and a combat knife was sheathed at his back. His mask was a dark grey, paneled affair that looked like the polygons from an old video game had come to life, in the vague shape of a devil's head. The mask was punctuated by red lenses, in the shape of angry eyes. Still, he did not speak.

"The rest of you, brainstorm amongst yourselves. I will consider the situation as well. Reconvene in sixty minutes. Dismissed." With that, Snake-Eyes strode out of the room.

Slugsicle watched him go. "Hmm," was his contribution to the discussion.

Xana offered the man a small smile before grabbing Alacrity's wrist and dragging her with her over to Hellion. The second girl didn't struggle, she just allowed herself to be toted around the room. The unproven cape leaned against the wall as Xana started up the conversation. "You have any ideas already Hellion? As long as I have access to water, I can create my clones, so depending on where we decide to enact out plan, I might have to create them before we head out."

As Eris, Mimi and Garet clustered around Hellion, the other formed together on the other side of the room. Blunderbuss almost immediately tried to throw a sucker punch at Redthatch, but the slender villain cheekily dodged the blow and stuck his tongue out before Architorque stepped between them and they got down to business.

Hellion pulled off his mask, now that Snake-Eyes was out of the room. He looked to be about the same age as Mimi, and he would have been incredibly good-looking were it not for the impressively dark dark circles under his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week. "Well," he said, his voice a quiet rasp. "I guess it depends on who we're after. If we're thinking about using your clones, then it could probably work out against Backdraft briefly, but we would have no way to restrain him. I'm kinda hesitant to knock him out."

"I can freeze the clones," Slugsicle piped up. "But Backdraft would melt the ice."

"Yeah," Hellion agreed. "So maybe not Backdraft, if that's how we plan to stop them up. Quillokka maybe?"

"Could work," Slugsicle shrugged. "Probably."

"Hopefully," Xana muttered. "We need a diversion though. Something to get Quillokka's and _only_ Quillokka's attention.

"Wait, wait," Alacrity interrupted. "Who are we talking about? Mimi only really told me about you guys. I don't know any of these heroes you're talking about."

"Yet I told you to keep up with the PHO forums."

There was a quiet huff from the white-haired girl, but she made no further argument. "Can someone explain please?" There was, however a certain bite to her voice.

"Uh," Hellion spoke up, before their bickering went any further. "Well, there are six Wards in Madison right now: Phantasm, Backdraft, Quillokka, Glaze, Rake, and Exemplar. Phantasm is the leader of their team, and she's seriously dangerous. She controls any and all light that touches her body, so she can shoot lasers, emit light blasts, or turn invisible. Seriously doubt we'll be able to pin her down.

Backdraft is one of their heavy hitters. He can superheat his limbs, to the point where he can reach through metal like it wasn't even there. Glaze is sort of a support, but he's also a bit of a mystery. He's been known to make things sticky, or slippery, or icy. It's hard to pin down exactly what his power is, but we don't want him around if we want to take a hostage. Quillokka can grow spines that are tougher than titanium from any part of her body, and she can shoot them, impale you on them, or just rip them out and use them like knives. Rake is a Tinker, and doesn't take to the field too often, because he makes stuff for his team and the PRT. And Exemplar, from what we can tell, is basically just a perfect human being; super-reflexes, super-speed, super-strength, all of that stuff, and low-level flight. This is going to be tough."

"Mm," Slugsicle agreed.

"Rake would be best bet, but again, highly unlikely to be out, so we'll have to make due with Quillokka." Xana sighed. "We might have to replace the clone holding her a few times. She could potential try using her spines to break them." She tapped a foot. "Unless you think of something better than that."

Alacrity huffed. "I suppose she would be the best..." She didn't seem amused still, but at least she didn't seem about to bite anyone's head off. ... yet.

"Unless you use multiple clones," Slugsicle said. "And I freeze all of them. Don't think she can break through that much ice. No super-strength."

"Could work," Hellion agreed. "But we'll need to distract whoever she is with. I can do that, but I can't handle the transportation to the trap, then. Maybe that's where Alacrity comes in. What do you think, Xana? Is your friend capable of a snatch-and-grab?"

"To be honest," she admitted, "I haven't seen much of her in action. That would be more for her to answer." She turned her gaze towards the newest member of their small 'think tank.'

Alacrity seemed to think on it for a moment. "If I have enough time to ramp up my speed, I should be able to. Depends on how big she is though, and how fast I'm going. I do know that because I'm new they won't expect it. So I guess we have that factor on our side. So... yeah. I can do it." Confidence had once again returned to the woman.

Hellion nodded. "So, you snatch her," he reiterated, pointing at Eris. "Fast enough that she can't use her spikes. Drag her back and away from her teammate. I'll step in to deal with the teammate, then you," he pointed at Mimi, "dogpile her with clones, and you," another point, this time in Slugsicle's direction, "freeze it all up. Sounds like it'll work out. Good plan."

"Plan A," Slugsicle corrected him.

"Plan A," Hellion agreed. "That about cover it?"

"Yeah," Xana nodded. "Should we come up with a second plan, just in case? We wouldn't want to be caught unprepared. Then again, we could improvise I suppose." She tapped her foot. "Alacrity is our strong point in this though..."

"Eh, you know Snake-Eyes," Hellion replied. "He isn't satisfied until you have thought things through as thoroughly as he has."

"He is never satisfied," Slugsicle supplied the obvious conclusion.

Architorque approached them. "Think of anything good to give to Snake yet?" she asked.

"Working on it," Hellion answered her. "Might have something decent. Seems our newbie might be a pretty great addition to the team. Gonna need to figure a few things out first, though."

"Such as?" Architorque's eyebrow jilted upward slightly.

"Well... we're not actually sure how strong Alacrity is when she's in her speed-mode yet. We should probably test that before we try to take down the Wards." Slugsicle nodded slightly behind him.

"So you want me to go out and test it. Is what you're asking?" She quietly asked for confirmation. She grabbed her mask and pressed it carefully to her face, adjusting it ever so slightly. "Where would we even do that?"

"Depends," Slugsicle shrugged again. "How much space do you need?"

"If you need a mile to charge up, we may need to pull this test out in the street, then skedaddle. If you need fifty feet, this room will suffice, if we move the chairs," Hellion added.

"Or, I could use my power, if you are comfortable with that," Architorque piped up. Hellion groaned.

"Ugh... that place always creeps me out."

"Not my fault you have no sense of aesthetics," Architorque retorted haughtily.

Eris hummed. "It's been a while since I used it. Also, I don't mind Architorque using her power at all," she laughed. She picked up her legs, jogging in place. "This should be fun."

Mimi smiled. She knew her friend enjoyed using her power, despite being unable to really, due to her past and having to hide it. "I guess that's an a-okay for you Archi."

Architorque beamed. Hellion buried his face in his hands. "You asked for it," he muttered.

"Let's head into the alleyway in the back," Architorque said with a smile, ignoring him. "That way I won't muss up the room too much."

The rear of the building was truly nothing special to look at. It didn't look like anyone had been there for years; even the interior of the building looked pretty unused, so it was very unlikely that anyone would spot them. Slugsicle had followed the three women, dragging a very uncomfortable-looking Hellion with him.

"Very well," Architorque said, an almost uncharacteristic grin spreading across her face. "Here goes!"

Everyone present felt a lurch in their stomachs, as though they were in an elevator that had just stopped too quickly. Then, the world around them began to bend and twist The brick of the building began contorting into spirals on the wall nearby, and the concrete of the floor beneath their feet began to stretch and bend upwards from the center, until they formed a vague, 100-foot high semi-circle, then a 200-foot circle as she stretched the ends upwards to meet.

"Wherever you run on that pavement," Architorque supplied, "gravity will keep you against the pavement. Have fun!"

"Trust me, she will." Xana laughed as she put her hands on her hips.

Alacrity gave a nod. "So who or what am I supposed to grab as our 'test dummy?' I'll need one most likely. Or I could run forever." She laughed as she began to pace again.

"Hmm," Architorque murmured, as though thinking about this for the first time. "Perhaps we should see how actually strong that she gets, first. If she doesn't know her own strength limitations... we don't want her to be too weak to grab the target, or underestimate herself and accidentally rip the target in half." She raised a hand, and a pile of trash nearby coalesced into a roughly human shape nearby, within the circular track. "Get to whatever speed you think you need, then grab that thing. Let's see what happens."

She nodded, then ran off. Or, more in the straight line around the circle of the space. She looped a couple times before there was suddenly a spray of the trash.

"Uh... whoops..." Eris muttered quietly as she came to a halt- on the ceiling.

Mimi stared at the remains of the dummy in slight shock. "Well..."

Architorque blinked. "I'm... really glad we didn't use a person for this demonstration. Jesus, you're strong!"

Slugsicle was nodding approvingly. "Strong as me. Maybe more."

Hellion seemed to react to that with surprise. "What?" he asked incredulously. "Dude, you can lift a fucking car."

"Let's try something else," Architorque said. A collection of nearby trash cans floated to the middle of the circle, welding themselves together. "See what happens when you do the same thing, now that it's metal."

There was a nod from the mover. "I'll do two laps again, but if the same thing happens I should probably try one, though I'll be nowhere near as fast or strong."

Eris seemed to be greatly enjoying herself. Her moodiness from earlier was completely gone as she took off again.

Mimi shook her head and laughed, her one visible eye closed. _"Mi hermana..."_

On the second try, there was the ear-splitting sound of metal wrenching, being torn free. The top half of the iron dummy had been shorn away, leaving jagged metal where the "waist" of the dummy had been.

"Strong as me, maybe more," Slugsicle repeated, his head bobbing more.

"Fuck," Architorque's surprise was clear to see on her face now. "That's... okay, try doing just one rotation. You're going to split that girl in half if you give yourself too much momentum."

"I hate this place," Hellion groaned.

"What makes you hate it so much anyways?" Xana stared at her teammate as Eris took off, this time only running once before reaching out to grab the can-dummy.

Hellion frowned at her. "I just tried to sit on this box," he said, pointing. "It's not a box anymore."

The red crate he indicated had indeed changed shape. The plastic had warped and twisted, so it now had an upward point, making it a more than slightly uncomfortable sitting place. "Besides," he added, looking up at Eris as she came around for her next pass. "The weirdest shit always happens in here..."

This time, when Alacrity struck the metal dummy, she yanked it free, dragging the solid ninety pounds of weight behind her effortlessly.

" _There_ we go!" Architorque cheered.

"Not very comfortable," she laughed before turning to Eris, who promptly dropped the cans.

"God that's heavy," she muttered as she stretched. "That should work though, right?"

"I believe so. Should we go back and wait for Snake?" Mimi asked, a hint of a smile evident in her voice. "Or does anyone have anything else we need to test?"

Slugsicle's response in its entirety involved turning around and making to walk back inside.

"Fucking _finally,_ " Hellion said. "Archi, let us out of this deathtrap, please."

"Maybe I will keep just you in here, to make a point," she huffed, casting him an irritated look.

"I'll do anything you want just let me out of here," he practically squeaked, as though unaware it was an empty threat. A rough chortle escaped Slugsicle's lips.

Mimi herself snorted. "You could make him do something for you, you know. He is begging."

Eris watched the group. Though the scene amused her as well, she wasn't quite comfortable joining in on this. She was new and she'd rather see how it would play out.

Architorque glanced smugly at Mimi. "Now, Xana," she replied, taking mock offense. "Do I really look like the kind of girl that would hold someone's weaknesses over them? I'm not so selfish!" With that, she wrenched the concrete circle back into its proper shape, and dismissed her power. Another gut-wrenching transition, and the cans fell to the ground from where they had been. The marks she had left in the bricks in the walls remained, as did the remains of the trash dummy she had constructed and the now wickedly-pointed former plastic crate.

"Oh, thank god," Hellion mumbled, and Architorque was overcome by a fit of giggles.

Mimi joined her. "Hellion, it wasn't that bad." She got out whenever she could, between laughs.

Alacrity suddenly grabbed the woman and began dragging her back into the hideout. "You sound so stupid right now," she huffed.

"Come on Eris! Lighten up."

Eris rolled her eyes as she continued to pull on Mimi. After a moment, Xana finally began moving without the help of her friend..

"Spoilsport," Mimi huffed.

"Devil child."

"I told you my children aren't devils," Mimi whined. As opposed to earlier, it was far more obvious this was playful banter, and not an actual argument.

Slugsicle followed silently behind them. If he was aware of discourse, playful or otherwise, he didn't show it; he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Hellion followed, similarly silent, but his expression was a pouty one. Architorque followed smugly behind him.

"So, how did that go?" Redthatch asked as they came back into the room. He was seated on a chair near the entrance to the room, leaning back so only two of the chair's legs were in contact with the ground. Blunderbuss leaned against the opposite wall, idly tapping his fingers against his leg, and Snake-Eyes had returned, standing at the front of the room, leaning against what seemed to be some sort of podium or altar in a manner that oozed smugness.

"Well, I assume," Snake-Eyes chuckled, as though to himself.

Xana blinked a couple times, and stopped the argument as she responded. "Yes as a matter of fact. We were just testing to see if our plan would pan out. It should, and Alacrity plays a fairly crucial role, I'd say," she relayed to him their plan.

"The only issue now, I think, is me not knowing what exactly Quillokka looks like, though I should be able to figure that out or someone could give me a description," The second woman continued.

"That can be quickly solved. What do you think, boss?" Xana asked.

Before Mimi had even finished her question, Snake-Eyes had produced a device. It was like a cell phone, but it was stockier, and clearly contained more gear. Tinker-tech. He pressed a series of buttons on it, and a projection was formed above it, a three-dimensional image, almost as life-like as if it were a sculpture of the person in question.

It was a teenaged girl, with light, mousey brown hair cropped so it swooped back but never touched her shoulders. She was attractive, in a way that made her more cute than pretty; she had a ski-jump nose, high cheekbones, and piercing brown eyes.

"Anja Andropov," Snake-Eyes stated matter-of-factly. "Otherwise known as Quillokka. She is five-foot-even, has basic low-level super-speed, and spine-generation capabilities. Second-generation cape, as her father was once a part of the Russian Zharkov Bratva, but relocated after Behemoth's attack on Moscow. This is the target you had in mind?"

A slow nod. "The group figured she'd be the easy to hold while we got information," Alacrity replied.

"Easiest for us to get too, we believe," Xana murmured. The woman flicked some of her hair behind her shoulders as she waited for confirmation.

Snake-Eyes stood up straight, moving his arms from where they were on the podium. "I wouldn't assume that any of them is the 'easiest'. Each of them have their challenges. The Madison Wards are not to be taken lightly. There is an abnormal amount of raw power amongst them, even as cape teams go. So, what is your reasoning for targeting her, specifically? Do you see her as less of a threat than, say, Backdraft or Glaze?"

"Never said that. Backdraft, however can easily escape from our ice prison deal. Glaze has too many uncertainties. Rake never leaves. Phantasm will be hard to target in the first place. Exemplar might be the next best bet if we can't get Quillokka but still, he can fly and has his strength." Mimi listed off before sighing. "Our strong suit, however, is Alacrity," she reemphasized. "They know nothing of her."

Eris stared at the model of the target, then back towards Snake-eyes. She looked like she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut for the time being.

There was a pause. Then, Snake-Eyes spoke. In spite of his mask, Eris and Mimi could hear his almost evil expression as he said:

"Very good." He clapped twice. "Tell me of your plan, then."

Hellion spoke up. His words were, somehow, more careful than they had been before. "I'm the distraction. Alacrity grabs the target, separates her from her squadmate, whoever that may be, and I take them on. Xana dog piles them with clones, Slugsicle ices them up. Simple, adaptable. Your power should figure out the rest."

There was a pause; long seconds passed before he spoke again. "It will work. No need for a second plan. I am impressed... and I am impressed with you, my dear Alacrity. Very well done. Proceed at precisely 1:13 AM tomorrow morning to the intersection at Quilt and 12th. Things should go smoothly. I am quite happy with all of your performances here today. I shall call to inform you when we will meet again."

Without any delay, Snake-Eyes left the room.

Xana let out a breath and tossed herself in a chair. "Now all we have to do is enact it. Okay."

Alacrity looked from her relieved friend to the rest of the group. "Is... he normally like that?"

"Always," Redthatch replied, taking a seat beside Mimi. "He plays up the whole mysterious thing. It's kind of infuriating, because he's actually good at it. I'd mock him for it, but he's actually kind of a scary motherfucker. Sometimes I actually believe he can see the future, but..."

"But precognitives are so unreliable," Architorque finished his statement. "There has to be some kind of limiter."

"Yeah," Redthatch agreed. "But none of us can figure out what it is. It's like, there's a point where he actually knows what's gonna happen, and then, it actually goes the way he says it's gonna. I still don't believe it, and he's never actually said it, but I'm pretty sure he wants us - he wants everyone - to think that."

"No such thing as fate," Slugsicle offered.

"Totally agree, bro," Redthatch replied. "Can't say that Snakey-Boy hasn't made me consider otherwise, though."

Mimi huffed. "It makes me slightly unnerved to be honest but... at least we have a perfect record... as far as it goes for a villain team at least."

Eris' eyes widened. "You've mentioned that before, haven't you? You guys haven't been caught yet at all, huh?"

There was an array of replies to that. A shake of the head from Slugsicle. "Not once," from Architorque. "Nope," from Redthatch. "Not a once," from Hellion. They were visibly proud of that fact.

"A lot of that is because of Snake-Eyes," Architorque said. "But, really, we are not slouches, either. We need each other, I suppose. It is mutually beneficial."

"Well, it seems to work great for you guys." Eris began to stretch before examining the room again. "Not to mention, it makes me feel a bit better about joining you all," she laughed.

"I'm glad your fine signing yourself away to a life of crime," Mimi replied with a playful jab.

"I mean, your the last person I'd expect to have and you did. And you know me. I should've gone villain before you but..." she shrugged, but there was a playful note to her voice as she continued. "You know how much I _love_ working part time jobs."

"Don't think I've ever asked," Redthatch spoke up. "Why _did_ you join, Xana? Alacrity is right, doesn't really seem like this would be your schtick. Not that we're complaining, you've saved our asses more than once, but... you're a teacher aren't you? Not exactly setting a glowing example for the little tykes."

"Don't be rude," Architorque sniffed.

Redthatch shrugged at that. "Not tryin' to be. Just genuinely curious. Seems like an odd duality, is all." Slugsicle said nothing, but he was watching on, clearly interested in her reply.

She shrugged. "I am. And it's fine that you ask, in all honesty." Before continuing, she paused and glanced at Blunderbuss. She sighed and shook her head ever so slightly. "When I first got my powers, I thought I'd be a hero. I mean, it wouldn't have been hard for me. But then I met Alacrity." She jerked a thumb towards the mentioned cape. "I found out what she had gone through and I desperately wanted to help her."

Eris scowled. "You pitied me?"

"A bit, but I was more mad at the orphanage than anything." The response seemed to work for Eris, as she let Mimi continue without any more arguing.

"I realized the things I wanted to do, to help, I couldn't do on the right side of the law, and I kinda figured she'd end up doing this sort of stuff herself. So... yeah." She rubbed the back of her head. "I probably want to be a Robin Hood more than anything." She gave a small laugh.

Redthatch cocked his head. "So is that what you've been doing with the crazy bank that we've been pulling in under Snakey-Boy? Shunting it all into charities and shit? Steal from the banks, give to the little guys?"

"It's admirable, really," Architorque said. "I'd probably do the same thing, if I wasn't such a selfish bitch." She laughed.

"You gotta be spreading yourself pretty thin, though," Hellion remarked. "Between actually teaching, lesson plans, and the shit we pull at night... when do you sleep?"

She rubbed the back of her head and laughed. "Being a _student_ teacher helps a bit. I don't have to be a coach for all the classes, though I will admit sleeping is a luxury I appreciate. "

"But you won't be a student teacher forever," Architorque supplied. "This can't last forever. If you have to choose between us and the kids, I think I know which decision you'll make. It will be rough to lose you." She placed her hand gently on Mimi's shoulder.

Slugsicle conspicuously looked away. Hellion was silent, but his expression was slightly uncomfortable.

"Jeez, guys," Redthatch piped up. "It's not like she fucking died. Enough with the funeral vibe."

"Don't do us any favors," Blunderbuss muttered from the other side of the room.

"Holy _fuck_ dude," Redthatch shot him a nasty look. "I get that you don't get along and all, but don't be a dick."

Eris glowered at the man, but remained silent as Mimi put a hand on her shoulder and gave a small laugh. "He's going to be sour no matter what. If he wants to be cranky, let him."

"Don't mind him," Redthatch agreed, shooting Eris a cocky grin. "Dudes never gonna have a girlfriend for as long as he lives."

At that, Slugsicle began to lumber slowly away. Architorque called after him: "You okay, Slug?"

"Mm," came his non-committal reply.

"He just wants my friend to die," Eris hummed.

Mimi looked with slight concern at the giant, though her bandana hid it. "You'll tell us if something is wrong, right?"

Slug didn't answer as he retreated into the back alley, where they had been to test Alacrity's power. The others watched him go.

"He's been kinda somber lately," Redthatch remarked.

"More than usual," Architorque agreed. "I wonder what's on his mind."

"Kinda tough to approach a guy like that, though," he answered, pulling off his mask; the shock of red hair came with it, and a puff of curly black hair supplanted it. "I dunno how you got so close to him, Xana."

"I'm not entirely certain either, though I don't mind it. Maybe it has something to do with our powers working well together, maybe it doesn't." Mimi ran her hands through her hair and split it before bringing half into each shoulder. "I'm positive he'll be back before we have to go though."

Eris remained silent, uncertain of what to say. She clasped her hands in front of her and went back to taking in details of the darkened club. It was obvious, to anyone looking at her at least., that she was avoiding looking at Blunderbuss.

Architorque's eyes narrowed. "He has always been quiet, yes," she said. "But I feel like there's something on his mind. Something recent, maybe? He does not talk about his personal life."

"True," Redthatch replied. "Dunno how we'd get him to open up, though. He never has before. Guess that's up to Xana over here," he added, moving around as he spoke to stand behind her and pat her on the other shoulder. "Up for an interrogation, Mimi?"

She went quiet as she thought. She placed a hand over her mouth. "I suppose we should. If something's bothering him, I think he should get it off his shoulders before we head out"

The others nodded.

"We'll make sure that Blunderbutt over there doesn't interfere, 'kay?" Redthatch winked. Architorque chortled slightly, and the pair made their way over to the villain that had isolated himself on the far side of the room.

"Think you'll be able to talk to him like this?" Hellion asked her. "He's always kinda been made of stone, to us. Ice cold, if you'll forgive the pun. Nice guy, but..."

"Intimidating because he's so quiet?" She offered before adjusting the bandana so it rested around her neck. "I'll do my best to talk to him. He's always quiet, but hopefully I'll be able to get _something_ from him. If he determines he doesn't want to talk though, there isn't much to be done."

Hellion nodded. "Well... good luck," he said, before trotting off to join his other teammates.

Slugsicle had seated himself outside. He had used his super-strength to force the warped plastic of the crate deformed by Architorque's power back into some semblance of a box, and perched himself atop it. He sat up straight, his hands folded in his lap, staring off into space. He did not seem to notice Mimi's approach.

In an effort not to startle him, she called out to him upon spotting him. "Hey, Slug." She smiled at him. "We're all a little worried about you." She stopped, hoping that maybe he'd offer information without her having to press for it.

"Mm," he grunted again. He turned to look at her, but the moment he made eye contact, he looked back into the sky. "No need to worry about me." In spite of his words, he shifted on the box, visibly uncomfortable. "We leave tonight. Should be ready."

She watched him for a moment. "You'll be ready physically, but what about mentally?" She asked. "It's obvious something is bothering you and I don't want it affecting you. I worry about you sometimes, you know?"

There was a pause. Long seconds passed before he replied.

"Sorry," he murmured. "Don't want anyone to worry about me." He seemed to attempt to look at her again, and failed once more. "I worry, too."

Mimi blinked slowly then took a few steps forward. Her gaze softened a bit as she spoke,"Do you need to talk about it? Would that help you get it off your chest?"

Slugsicle sighed, and pulled off his mask, setting it beside him. A morose expression had blanketed his face. "It's stupid. Don't want to ruin things. No point. Not... worth the risk?" His tone at the end of his sentence arced upward, making it into a question. He looked utterly unsure of himself. He sighed again.

"We do dangerous things. Stupid to get invested."

The woman tilted her head. "Garet, of course we do dangerous things. We're villains." She shook her head and smiled. Then, she added, "And I'm fairly certain that venting won't ruin anything."

He looked away. "Not so sure," he murmured. Then he turned to face her, scooting on the box so his entire body was centered in her direction. He sat up even straighter, resting his hands on his knees.

"I worry about you," he said. "Maybe it's not fair. Just... you're nice to me," he finished lamely, and his eyes flicked off to his right. "Don't want you to get hurt."

"I have no plans to be," she laughed softly. "If we stick to our plans, we should all be fine, even Quilloka." She let out a sigh and leaned against the wall of the building. "But Blunderbuss shouldn't joke about anything that serious. Not while we do this kind of job." She made air quotes with her hands as she said the last word.

Slugsicle clenched his fists. He looked frustrated now. "That's... that's not..."

Suddenly he lurched forward, falling onto one knee as he reached for her. He wrapped his arms around her, quickly, but gently. "Don't want you getting hurt. Care more than I should. Hard for me to say these things. Sounds stupid. Unprofessional. Sorry."

Mimi went still in his arms. She seemed to freeze up almost, but then wrapped her own arms around him. "I see," she murmured. "Well for one, you definitely don't sound stupid." She looked toward him and smiled. "And... I think I understand what you meant now. By there being a risk."

"Stupid," Garet murmured, more to himself than to her, in spite of the fact that his lips were inches from her ear. "Stupid, stupid."

He pulled away. "Can't let you be hurt. Can't live with that. You don't deserve it. Don't deserve to... have to be here. Wish I could do something about it." He locked his gaze on the floor.

"Snake knows, I think. Made a comment a week ago about it. Stupid."

"Garet," she murmured. "I choose to be here." Her golden eyes watched him as she moved next to him. Slowly, she reached out and, after a moment's hesitation, carefully lifted his head. "If your worried about me being hurt, I have my clones, not to mention I _trust_ you." She emphasized the word.

She went quiet for a moment, thinking. Then, Mimi glanced up to the sky. "If Snake-Eyes was against it he would've already done something. You know he would've."

"He would," Garet agreed, after a pause. "This is not... comfortable for me. Not used to this. Not used to liking someone, less... this. And... thank you," he added, looking away. "I'm not..." He stopped, unable to find the words he wanted. "I'll protect you, tonight. I have to. Wards are tough. Legend is here. Can't let you..." his voice faded away. "Sorry," mumbled.

"It's fine, and thank you," she soothed before reaching out and hugging him. After a moment, she froze and pulled away. "Sorry if that... makes you uncomfortable."

Garet shook his head, a little harder than was necessary. "It's fine," he rumbled. He stared at her. His square jaw was set determinedly, and his cobalt blue eyes seemed to bore into her, as though searching for something. "Will be fine when this is over, and we're on the other side. Yeah?"

"It will." She smiled. "Let's just get through this, and everything will be fine." Mimi held out her hand to him. "We... should probably head back inside." She glanced at the door. "Spend too long out here and one of the others might decide to eavesdrop."

"Surprised they aren't already," Garet said, a small smile gracing his thin lips. "I suppose we should. I..." he trailed off. He hesitated, for long seconds. Then he leaned down, and planted a careful kiss on her forehead. "Sorry," he said. "We can talk when the night is done?" He released her, taking a step back. He stood tall, his chest arcing forward, as though he was proud of himself. "We have a job."

"Of course. We finish tonight's job, then we talk." She walked over towards the door and opened it. "But for now, let's head back in."

Garet's shoulders had squared, and he walked through the door door she had opened with renewed vigor. He clenched and unclenched his fists as he did so.

"Y'all okay?" Redthatch called to them, as they stepped back into the room. The others turned to face them, too; even Blunderbuss, looked over in their direction, having seated himself in a different corner of the room. "We're talkin' gear, for the night's raid."

"We're fine," Mimi announced, nodding at Garet. "Speaking of the raid, should I make my clones now or after we head out? Which do you all think is best?" Despite the rather intimate conversation, Mimi decided it was probably best to move on, less one of the others question the conversation. After all, she'd be able to talk to Garet later. "To me it doesn't matter all that much but..."

"That sort of depends on you," Architorque supplied. "If you feel it would be better to be prepared earlier, or to conserve your strength for the fight... you have your plan, right?"

"Might be better to wait until we're just about ready to leave," Hellion stated. "That way you're not expending energy keeping them together while we're doing nothing."

"But if that energy is practically irrelevant," Redthatch cut in. "Doesn't that mean that this could provide an opportunity to do some low-scale practice? Maybe iron out our idea?"

"What's the point?" Architorque answered. "This is all going to be a bit off the cuff. Might be worth relying on impulse, to a certain degree. Plan too hard, then you can't react when it doesn't go as planned."

"You will react regardless of a plan," Slugsicle interjected. "No one here is stupid."

"I guess," Architorque shrugged.

Xana shrugged. "I'll make them as we leave I suppose. But yeah, I'm not certain practice will help. Not when we're going to interrogate a Ward at least. There's too many variables in that."

Alacrity tapped on her mask as she listened in, half interested.

"Guess that means we should relax a bit," Redthatch said. "No use going into a fight with these stakes worn out. Damn, so much shit can go wrong here. Too little, we get nothing. Too much, we piss off Legend. Gotta play it safe. That goes double for you, newbie," he added, pointing at Eris, without sounding or seeming condescending. "We mess her up, we've got the Triumvirate up our asses. Slow and steady wins the race, or some shit."

"You are determined to ruin every reference you try to employ," Architorque teased him.

"I'll be here 'til Thursday," Redthatch grinned, and performed an exaggerated bow.

Eris gave a nod and mock salute. "No decapitating the Ward like I did the dummies."

Mimi snorted and shook her head. "Come on Thatch."

Redthatch raised his arms and shoulders into a similarly exaggerated shrug before spinning on one heel. "So!" he called. "I guess operation Chill-The-Fuck-Out is in order. Time to prep our shit. Glad there's no tinker here to demand another week," he added with a laugh.

"1:13AM," Hellion said. "We have a few hours. I kind of want to use them to get something done, make this easier, but... I can't think of anything." He frowned.

"Relax," Architorque said. "Snake-Eyes said your plan would work. It should be fine, he's always right."

"He has a habit of not telling us what the consequences of successful jobs are, though," Hellion shot back, one eyebrow quirked upward. "Remember the bridge mission? Xana was fucking pissed about that. None of us had any idea that armored truck was holding charity donations."

"Snake has a morality issue," Architorque agreed. "But he said this would go down fine. It's too close to the deadline. Better to do the job, and think on it later."

"That mindset is what got us here," Hellion mumbled. "Whatever. Gotta do what we gotta do I guess."

"Mhm..." Mimi then let out a small groan, clearly not pleased of being reminded of that particular event.

"So," Eris started, "What are we going to do til we head out?"

"Guess I could take us all to my place," Hellion shrugged. "I've got a nice pad. We have like six hours. We could hang there, rest up until the time. Any idea why Snake-Eyes set that time, by the way? Does he have access to Ward patrol schedules or some shit? How does he know we're gonna get the right target?"

"It's Snake-Eyes," Redthatch chuckled. "Why does this still shock you?"

"He creeps me out," Hellion answered. "And if you don't find him a little freaky, it makes me wonder about you."

"No arguments, no arguments," came Redthatch's chortled reply.

"Yep. He may be but he's the reason that we've gotten as far as we have... even if he is unsettling." Mimi tapped her foot and glanced over to Slugsicle.

Eris nodded.

Slugsicle caught her eye as she glanced at him. He offered her the tiniest of smiles.  
"Well, if that's the case," Hellion said. "Everyone grab my arms. I'll 'port us to my place." He stood with his arms splayed, to allow everyone the ability to touch him at the same time. Redthatch took his wrist first, and Architorque followed by placing a hand on his shoulder. Even Blunderbuss ambled forward, and put his hand on Hellion's other shoulder.  
Slugsicle nodded at Mimi, and placed his palm on Hellion's back.

"Wait," Eris started. "Don't you explode?"

Mimi didn't allow her much time to think about it as she placed her hand next to Garet's and with her other arm, pressed Eris' too.

"Close enough," Hellion smirked. "Three..."

They could all feel him tense, feel a tingle as his power took effect. "Two..."

There was a rush of air, past their hands and faces, inwards towards Hellion as he announced: "One!"

There was yet another gut-wrenching lurch, but it was worse than when Architorque had used her power. It carried all the effects of being punched hard in the stomach, without the actual impact. In the blink of an eye, they found themselves in a reinforced metal box, with fluorescent lighting recessed behind some kind of ridiculously strong glass, lighting the tiny chamber without allowing Hellion's power to destroy the bulbs.

"Here we are," Hellion said casually. He reached forward, as the hands of the other fell away from him, and opened the door. The chamber portal lead into an otherwise entirely normal-looking apartment, with a couch separated from a television by a coffee table. "Have a seat, at _chez Greg_."

Eris groaned. "Hellion weren't you complaining about Archi's power? I'd say that's far worse." Her head dropped and Mimi ended up pushing her out of the box and onto the couch.

Greg shrugged, in an exaggerated fashion. "I don't feel it," he offered. Then he allowed himself to collapse onto a nearby chair. "Besides, not like your power isn't scary as hell. You gonna argue with me?" He cast her a cheeky grin, but he looked tired.

Redthatch recovered first. "You already know your power makes us wanna barf, every time," he quipped at Hellion. "You enjoy this, don't you?" Hellion extended his arms to either side in another massive shrug. Redthatch ignored him, and made his way over to the television, where he turned it on, and poked the power button of a gaming console that sat beneath it. "Whatever. Think you can beat me today?"

"No," Greg replied. "But I'll figure it out one day, Amon, and on that day, you will fear me."

"I'll never fear you, Greg," Amon replied with a grin. "Bring it on."

Architorque watched them, smiling fondly. She took a seat near the screen, leaning back against the coffee table, crossing her legs in front of her and resting her elbows on the surface behind her. She wrenched her mask off her face, revealing thin, pale lips, and a pointed nose and chin. "Don't abuse him too much, Amon," she remarked. "You won't have anyone to play this game with."

"He can take it," Amon replied smugly. "Or he wouldn't keep bringing us here."

"I'm right here, you know," Greg rolled his eyes. "You can talk to me."

Eris' interest was gained at the mention of the game and she watched the two from her spot on the couch. After a moment, she froze up and suddenly reached up and pulled off her mask, revealing her freckled face. "I forgot I had that on..." She muttered.

Mimi laughed and nudged her friend. "Eris." She didn't say any more to her but instead leaned back into the couch and stared at the ceiling.

When the game appeared on the screen, it appeared to be some sort of fighting game based on some Japanese franchise or another. Amon navigated the menus expertly, and soon enough they were in a character select screen. Both Amon and Greg chose three characters, and the match began, though it became abundantly clear within the first few seconds that it was much less a match than it was a total slaughter fest. The match ended two minutes later; all three of Greg's characters were downed, while Amon had barely lost any health from his first. "I am struck full of fear," Amon said smarmily, casting an arrogant grin at Greg."

"Hey, you usually take it a little easier on me," Greg replied, clearly unperturbed by the loss, leaning lazily back into his chair. "Showing off for the ladies, huh?"

"Got me," Amon's toothy grin only widened. Architorque rolled her eyes.

As the match happened, Garet silently made his way to the one unoccupied space left on the couch, beside Mimi, and lowered himself carefully down to sit beside her. He folded his hands in his lap, and stared blankly at the screen, his body rigid, as though purposefully sitting still.

"You don't know how to combo any of that do you?" Eris questioned, but it was more of a statement based of what she had just witnessed. She pressed her mask into her stomach a bit as she watched the two.

Mimi smiled as she noticed him, but decided not to press him again, not until after the mission anyways. She also didn't know how open he wanted to be about it with their whole group so she just simply sat there, albeit a bit awkwardly as she kept looking towards the TV screen in forced interest.

"If you're gonna be a show off," Greg said with a smirk, "then I wanna face someone else. Kagiso, you up to kicking my ass?"

Architorque - Kagiso - cracked her knuckles and swiped the controller from Redthatch's grasp. "Very well," she replied. "Do your worst."

As the next match began, Garet's eyes flicked around to each member of the team. All of them seemed entirely focused on the TV; Greg and Kagiso were engrossed in their match, which was a bit more fair, while Redthatch offered a constant stream of encouragements and criticisms on their gameplay. Eris, too, seemed fixated on the game. He locked his eyes on the television, too, but he unfolded his hands, inching his right hand over, palm upward, to brush one finger ever-so-lightly against the side of Mimi's leg. He swallowed nervously, and blinked just a little too quickly.

Mimi nearly jumped but kept herself composed as she glanced in the opposite direction as she slid her hand into his 'inconspicuously.' A slight, barely noticeable red spread its way across her cheeks as she turned back to the television and the fight between Kagiso and Greg. "Who do you think will win?" She asked quietly as she continued watching.

Garet, too, had flushed noticeably. His attempt to keep up the charade was less graceful than hers was. "Uh," he murmured in reply, before falling silent again. It took him nearly a full thirty seconds to actually formulate a reply. "Kagi I guess." He wrapped his large fingers around her hand, and brushed at her skin gently with his thumb. She could tell that he was still extremely tense, as though he wasn't exactly sure what he was doing.

She wrapped her fingers around his and squeezed gently, reassuringly. "We'll see, I suppose," she gave a small laugh as she crossed her legs on the couch. Mimi's free hand reached up and gently squeezed her bandana as her eyes remained trained on the screen.

A ten minutes later, the outcome was clear: Garet had been correct, and Kagiso had won by a hair. She raised her fists into the air victoriously, as Greg set the controller aside. "Man, I suck at this," he said, but he smiled as he said it.  
"Practice makes perfect," Amon nodded sagely.

"Can't help but think I should be spending my time on more important things," Greg shrugged. "It's Eris, right? You seem interested, you wanna have a-" he paused, as his eyes fell on Garet and Mimi's clasped hands. To his credit, he recovered in a split second, immediately diverting his eyes back to Eris. "You wanna have a go?"

Eris didn't seem to notice the pause as she hopped up from her seat. "Who am I playing against?" She held out a hand to take a controller from one of the previous players. It was obvious though that she wasn't going to just snatch it from them.

Mimi voted to ignore that he had even seen them, despite the red on her face. "Careful of her, she gets really into the game." There was an awkward laugh from the girl. This got Eris' attention and she began to turn toward the two.

Garet seemed to be in his own little world. At some point down the line, he had retreated into his personal headspace, and he was staring at the floor, still slightly red. If he had any idea that he was about to get found out, he made no indication.

Once again, Greg saved them. "Catch," he said, arcing the controller into the air with an easy toss. "Take my spot. If I get thrashed too much, I'll start losing interest."

She gave a nod and caught it, if only barely. "Thanks," she grinned and sat down in front of the screen, next to Kagiso. A cheeky grin began to creepy up on her face as she went to select her character.

Mimi on the other hand suddenly pulled the bandana in her hand over her face.

The motion seemed to get Garet's attention, and he turned to her. Catching her eye, he mouthed: "Too much?" He loosened his grip on her hand, as though to pull away.

"Maybe she should face Kagiso, see where that leads," Amon suggested. "Not about to start out by trouncing the new girl."  
"Didn't stop you when I joined," Greg shot back.

"What, when you were the new girl?" Amon grinned. "Pretty little Greg, she was so cute when she first joined."

"You know I'm older than you, right?" Greg laughed.  
"You still walked right into that," Amon stuck out his tongue. "Age has nothing to do with it."

"Touché," Greg chuckled.

In response she simply squeezed his hand tighter and tilted her head ever so slightly towards Eris.

Eris hummed. "I don't care who I play against in all honesty. This is a good game." She crossed her legs and gripped the controller properly before returning the game to the selection screen. "Just decide amongst yourselves. Fight for it if you want," her grin widened somehow as she stated that.

"Cocky, I like it!" Amon said cheerily. "Alright, Kagiso, show her what's up, yeah?"

Kagiso merely locked in her character choice in response, readying herself for the upcoming match. "Ready when you are," she said confidently.

Garet's fingers laced around Mimi's once more, the tightness of his grip conveying his contentment with the scenario. A hint of a smile touched his lips.

Eris locked in as well. "Oh, I'm ready." Her body leaned forward ever so slightly as they reached a loading screen.

Mimi closed her eyes and waited for the sounds of chaos to emanate from the screen. "Don't go easy on her Kagiso. Trust me."

Kagiso shrugged. "As you say," she replied, and the game began.

Kagiso held her own, but only for the first round. Eris won the match handily, and not six minutes later, the match was over.  
"Alas," Kagiso cried with mock shame. "I have met defeat."

"Dang, you _are_ good," Amon grinned. "That was a good showing. You have this game, clearly."

"Yep," she chirped. "It's _fun,"_ but then she huffed. "Mimi's no good at it though. I always crush her. So new people means I get to use _different_ strategies."

"You have time to practice. You know how unavailable I am for everything really," Mimi replied.

"True." Somehow the redhead still hadn't turned around.

"Well, then," Amon grinned again. "My turn." Kagiso threw the controller at him - a little harder than was necessary - but he caught it in one hand. She quirked one eyebrow up at him, as if to warn him, in one way or another. He ignored her.

"Up for a real fight?" he asked good-naturedly. Kagiso kicked him, and he barked with laughter.

"Fuck yeah," Eris locked in again and that smirk of hers returned.

Mimi leaned against Garet ever so slightly. "You might meet your match, Amon."

Amon tilted his head to one side, until his neck popped. "One way to find out!" he declared.

The match was brutal. More moves were dodged and blocked than in all of the other matches that day combined. The ordeal lasted the better part of twenty minutes. Kagiso whooped and cheered each time that Eris landed a hit, clearly rooting against her older teammate. Greg simply watched with a silly smile on his face.

Garet turned slowly to look down at Mimi. His gaze locked on her, and didn't move. His expression was a solemn one; not unhappy, but contemplative. Even when the match ended, and Amon bellowed his _very_ narrow victory into the air, his gaze did not budge.

"That was fucking _awesome!_ " he shouted. "You really had me against the ropes in round two, I had no defense against that combo. Man, I _never_ get to face someone as good as I am. You've got points in my book, kid."

Mimi looked up at him and tilted her head ever so slightly. "Hmm?"

"Oh, it felt good to fight you too." Eris laughed. "And I'm glad my video game skills have served me in some fashion." She rolled her eyes. "Mimi said that it wouldn't do much for me but HAH!"

Amon chuckled. "Hah, indeed," he answered, turning around. "So, Mimi, are you gonna - when the fuck did _that_ happen?" he interrupted his own sentence, gaping at Mimi and Garet as they held hands on the couch. All eyes turned their way.

Mimi sat still, staring at the wall. She didn't move nor turn to look at any of the rest of the room's occupants. Whatsoever. The red crept across her face again and made her bright as a cherry tomato.

"Mimi...?" Eris asked, dumbfounded. "What? When? Huh? You... never mentioned..." she trailed off as she continued to stare at the two.

Long seconds passed before Garet managed to mumble a response. "Just happened," was all he offered.

"Hoooooly _shit,_ ", Amon practically trilled. "Who'd have thought? Guess you go for the strong, silent type, eh Mimi?"

Kagiso punched him, and he cackled.

"That's wonderful," Greg smiled. "Glad things are working out. Nice little morale boost. Feeling better, Garet?"

The enormous man nodded slowly.

Mimi just stared blankly for a few more seconds before burying her face against Garet's shoulder.

"You're telling me about this when we get home," Eris stated. "We'll have _so_ much to talk about," Her grin turned sinister, despite Mimi's purposefully obstructed view.

Garet diverted his gaze, looking down to stare at the top of Mimi's head. He rested his chin there, though it appeared to be a rather uncomfortable pose to take; at an inch short of seven feet tall, he had to arch his back in an unnatural-looking way to achieve the effect he wanted. "Don't let her taunt you," he rumbled, and she could feel his low, gravelly voice through her contact with him.

"Hey, maybe we should make this, like, a team of couples," Amon joked. "Kagiso, wanna go out with me?"

She punched him again, and he exploded with laughter.

"That would put me with the new girl," Hellion said. "More than a little awkward. Especially because that leaves Blunder with... Snake-Eyes."

Amon howled, falling back on the ground, literally rolling around, unable to contain his mirth.

Eris went to say something but quickly ran away and hid behind the couch as two watery figures seemed to form out of nothing. Mimi tilted her head ever so slightly and the two clones punched Amon and Greg in unison.

"Spare me," Eris half pleaded, half joked from the other side of the couch as Mimi returned her face to the shoulder and let out a flustered groan.

"Oof!" Amon wheezed, as the punch cut through his laughter. He panted on the floor, trying to catch his breath, more from the excessive hilarity than from the pain.

"What did I do?!" Greg complained, nursing his stomach, where the clone's fist had landed.

Blunderbuss, who had until this point been sitting in a corner away from the rest of the team, finally spoke for the first time since they arrived. "So fucking stupid," he muttered.

"Leave it to Doctor Killjoy over there," Greg rolled his eyes. "It's a joke, man, chill."

Mimi dismissed the clones and slowly turned her head so that the side of her face was still against Garet's shoulder. Her face was still a pale pink but otherwise she seemed fine now. She chose to ignore Blunder as she gave a slightly delayed response to Greg. "You couldn't distract anymore." The woman gave a small huff.

Eris peeked over the couch. "Who couldn't what now?"

"No good deed goes unpunished," Greg sighed, leaning back in his chair again. "Man, I wish I had a power I could use to retaliate, but I'm not generally a fan of blowing up my house and my friends. Pain in the ass, sometimes."

"Oh, boo hoo," Amon replied snarkily, sitting up. "I can go home literally whenever I want, and go any place I can remember in the blink of an eye, but I can't poke my friends."

"Not like you can, either," Greg shrugged. "You've actually gotta get up and strike out if you wanna retaliate."

"Yeah," Kagiso jumped in. "You're like Assault in Brockton Bay, just more useless." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Ah, shit," Amon flinched, feigning pain. "That burns..."

Greg and Kagiso laughed. Even Garet permitted himself a short "Heh."

Mimi smiled and remained plastered to Garet's side.

"I could decapitate everyone, though I don't think everyone would be up for that," Eris offered. "Video games are far better than that, not to mention we can retaliate using it. FIGHT ME THATCH!" she suddenly shrieked. Clearly, she wasn't over losing quite yet.

Amon cackled. "You're on, new girl," she said, spinning where he sat to face the screen again. "I'll take Taguya this time. How you gonna deal with that AOE?"

"She fits well here," Garet murmured into Mimi's hair. "Good call." With the ruse up, Garet abandoned subtlety. He had never been good at it, anyway. He turned where he sat, wrapped his arm around her, and held her to his broad chest. "I'm... glad that you..." he trailed off, holding her just a little tighter.

"I'll deal with it by punching Taguya in the face," Eris stated matter-of-factly.

Mimi nodded as she looked up to him. "Im glad that everything is fine." She leaned against him ever so slightly. " You had me worried for a moment. But this? This is fine." She sat in the quiet for a moment before suddenly laughing. "Guess I can stop coming up with lame excuses on what I do after I help coach and just say I hang out with my boyfriend. Half truths are better than total lies."

"Boyfriend?" Garet repeated. He leaned back fractionally for just a moment. "Mm. I like that."

An apparent moment of inspiration later, as the battle raged on the screen, Garet leaned over, and picked her up with the ease that he might lift an empty cardboard box. He brought her down gently, seating her in his lap, and enveloped her again, burying his face between her neck and shoulder. "You smell nice," he muttered awkwardly. He paused.

"Tonight," he went on. "Don't... take any risks you don't have to. Scared what might happen. Been worried for a while. Glad I can say it now."

"Okay," she murmured. "I'll do my best to. And know you can actually speak with me, okay?" She gave a small, quiet laugh. With that said, Mimi closed her eyes and simply listened to the happenings of the room.

A low, rumbling chuckle rattled his body. "Will try," he replied softly. "Not good with talk."

A few meters away, Amon threw his controller on the ground. He screeched over Greg's protestations about abusing his equipment.

"DAAAAAMN!" he yelled. "That was _so close!_ I'd have had you if I just got that last counter off! Fuck, fuck fuck, good match!" He almost seemed excited about being defeated, but there was no small amount of frustration in his voice. "That's Taguya's counter, I guess. Just don't let her use the AOE skills."

Mimi's eyes blinked open at the sudden noise but she said nothing, preferring to watch the scene.

"As I said, death is the best counter," Eris gloated and raised her remote in victory. "And guess what? There's no counter to death!"

"Yeah, yeah," Amon grinned, away from the screen to regard her. "Fuckin' rub it in, squirt." He dove, suddenly, to give her a painful noogie.

Garet didn't seem to notice the commotion. He didn't move at all.

"Well, now that it's kind of a draw," Greg spoke up, standing from his chair. "Maybe we should talk about tonight, yeah? If the four of us are gonna handle the interrogation, we should probably discuss what the rest of you are gonna do."

Eris made a hissing sound as he did so and squinted her eyes shut. "Hey!" As he rubbed her head, stray strands of bright red hair exploded out from their concealed place beneath the white of her wig.

"Prob-," Mimi replied from her perch, but paused as she watched Eris grab and the wig and give a huff.

"That was a pain to get on... Oh well... at least we don't leave for a while." She seemed more disappointed in realizing she'd have to put it back on than the fact that it was actually off.

"Natural redhead!" Amon laughed. "Well, that's interesting."

" _Amon,_ " Greg said harshly. "Chill. Answer me. Kind of important."

"Kind of important," Kagiso echoed, her strange accent mitigating the effectiveness of her attempt at emulation.

Amon sighed. "Well, I guess we can always hang back a ways, back you up if shit goes south," he said. "I dunno why you're so worried. Snake-Eyes said it would go fine."

"Snake-Eyes always says what we need to hear," Greg replied. "C'mon, man, you know this. If he anticipates we'll have a talk like this, then we have to have a talk like this. And frankly, I'm not willing to let it drop, and I'm pretty sure he's betting on that."

"Fine, fine," Amon huffed, releasing Eris and standing up to face his teammate. "We can stay back a ways, in radio contact, and back you up. We establish a point you know about beforehand, so you can 'port over and drag Kagiso into the fray if you need her. Same with me. You bring who you need. I'll tank shit up for you, and Kagiso can make a mess of their surroundings. Blunder is the last case scenario, if we gotta respond with brute force. That sound good?"

"Maybe," Greg admitted. "This is the Madison Wards we're talking about. We've only gone up against them in full force once, and it got pretty hairy."

"That was back when Raze was on their team," Kagiso replied. "Before..." she trailed off. There was a somber pause.

Eris looked at the group. "Before... what?" She asked quietly, noticing the change in mood.

Another pause, before anyone spoke.

"Raze was a member of the Wards, up until a couple months ago," Amon supplied. His typical exuberance was gone. "There are plenty of villains around that will do horrible things, obviously, but I guess it hits a lot harder when it's a cape. Harder to do things to a cape, or something. Or maybe just a public figure."

"Or some combination of those," Greg continued. "Raze was one of the Wards heavy hitters. She seemed pretty untouchable. Even Redthatch wasn't able to get close to her. But, uh..." he trailed off.

It was Garet that spoke next. "Unknown cape, unknown powers. Captured her. Held her for ransom. PRT tried to hardball. Evil cape raped her. Repeatedly. It was bad."

"Yeah," Amon used Garet's impetus to carry on. "Apparently she's one of the few capes on record that had a second trigger event, because they found her after it happened. Remember the Ice Rink Incident? Where those buildings were flattened, until everything for a block was leveled as smooth as glass? That wasn't a freak accident, or some tinker tech gone wrong, like the media theorized. It was covered up, because it was a member of the Wards. Hundreds dead. They picked her up from the middle of the scene, all fucked up, apparently. Snake-Eyes found the truth."

"Fucking terrible," Kagiso muttered.

Eris froze up. "Oh... _oh..."_ She shook her head. "I... see. That's what... happened."

Mimi quickly replied to her. "You didn't know. Not many people do. We know because of Snake, there's still tons of people who don't know the truth behind their family members' deaths. It's hard for everyone."

Eris gave a small nod of acknowledgement but seemed to he strangling her wig as she muttered, "That's stupid..."

Kagiso nodded in agreement, and placed a comforting hand on Eris's shoulder. "I don't deny I'm selfish, and I do things that benefit me. But that... that's the kind of cape that people band together against. Some people just don't deserve to fit into this world. I'm glad he's dead, whoever he was."

"I think we all are," Greg agreed. "If he's willing to do that to a girl... what the hell would he be willing to do to everyone else? How would that have escalated? I admit... I wonder, sometimes, if killing capes like that are worth the lives they take."

"That's fucking dark, dude," Amon said, with no trace of mirth. "I really like my power. I can get away with a lot of shit... but I don't ever try to kill people. I leave that dark-ass shit to Snakey-Boy and Blundercunt over there."

"Fuck you," Blunderbuss replied.

"Point is," Amon continued, as though unaware of the interruption. "Cape life can get pretty sketchy. If you wanna join our team, _Alacrity,_ " he emphasized her cape name. "You gotta anticipate that shit like this can happen. Better that we have this discussion now than when you get traumatized or some shit."

Eris gave a small nod as she looked back up. "I know. Cape life is crap for everyone. Disasters... endbringers... Everything is a time bomb pretty much. It's a matter of what gets to fuck with you first. I don't plan on ducking out though," she stated. "Mimi's in on this. I can do it too." Her stare turned determined, which earned a proud smile from Mimi.

A smile finally cracked Amon's face. "Good girl," he said, without any trace of condescension. "We should all have that kind of stones." Kagiso nodded approvingly. Greg looked down, composing himself, and looked up with a tired but more optimistic expression on his face.

"We're gonna be taking on kids that have seen that kind of shit," he said. "They're kids... but they're tough shit."

The talk of Raze and the Ice Rink Incident saw Garet gripping Mimi just a little harder. As the other spoke, he whispered into her ear, low enough that no one else could hear: "I will never, ever let anything like that happen to you. Ever."

"I know," was her hushed reply. "I believe you."

"We gotta do what we gotta do for info." Eris sighed. "Just don't rough up the cape too badly and hopefully Legend won't be on our asses by the time we're done."

"Sounds about right to me," Mimi replied, raising her voice slightly to be heard.

"That's the general idea," Greg nodded. "But it's bound to be complex. Let's go through shit again, just in case. Fortunately, our target doesn't synergize very well with anyone, she's a bit of a lone wolf. That'll be helpful. But we don't know who-"

 _All_ of their phones rang. Amon was the first to pick up. He put it on speaker before he said: "'Sup, boss?"

"Aware of the fact that you are only now discussing tactics," came Snake-Eyes's voice from the phone. "I shall provide you with just a little more information, as I have gleaned it. You will not be up against a typical two-man patrol. Your entire team will be necessary. You will be up against Quillokka, Backdraft, Phantasm, and a cape that hey have only just admitted into their ranks."

"A new cape?" Kagiso muttered.

"That makes things a bit more dangerous..." Mimi muttered to herself. " You know anything about them?" She asked.

Eris' eyes remained locked onto the phone as she waited for a response.

There was a pause from the phone. When Snake-Eyes's voice came again, he dripped with what could only have been excitement. "No," he said, reveling in the intrigue. "I know nothing of them. I have no knowledge of this cape, past or present. I will be doing my research. If I come up with anything relevant, I will of course relay the information. But for now... this will be a gamble the likes of which we have not seen in some time. Do enjoy your escapade. I will be in touch."

The line went dead.

"Fucker's a goddamned cocktease," Amon spat.

Mimi sighed and grabbed one of Garet's hands before gently squeezing it.

"So what do we do now?" Eris questioned. "First of all there's two extra people. Second we know _nothing_ of the second."

"Definitely worth being concerned about," Greg agreed. "This changes everything. The plan? Snake said it would work. But it'll get more complicated now. We'll need more of a distraction than just myself. I can do a decent job, but if I seriously injure someone, we're likely to see Legend on the scene, and then we're all finished."

"You have an idea?" Kagiso asked.

"We have some info here we can work with," Amon replied, rubbing his chin. "Quillokka, our target. Backdraft... I can probably keep him occupied. It'll be tough, but I can manage. Phantasm is gonna be the hard one."

"If I can trap her in my dimension," Kagiso piped up, "I can keep her out of the fight."

"But you'll need to avoid her, and if she takes you down, she can come after the rest of us and we'll never know," Greg said. "That may not be the best idea."

"Don't underestimate her, Greg," Amon said. "Invisibility is great, but when you can control the surroundings, there's a lot of shit you can do."

"I can hold her," Kagiso affirmed. "But I will need time to build it up, and I will need help to keep her away until I do."

"We're running out of options, here," Greg said, pursing his lips. "Only so many people on our team."

Mimi nodded. "I can _maybe_ spare a clone that's not on Quillokka, but... That's a stretch. Eris might be able to do something more, but there's the issue of her killing someone."

Eris fiddled with her fingers before shrugging. "I can stop and start a few times to control my speed, but still? What will I do?"

"You could maybe distract their newbie," Mimi suggested. "You're both unknown factors for each team. It depends though on what we realize that cape can do."

"I think we're gonna have to leave part of this to chance," Amon shrugged. "We don't know her power, Snakey-Boy didn't give us any insight, because he claims he doesn't have any. We just gotta adapt."

Kagiso nodded. "Could be. He said the plan would work, so we stick with that general idea, and mold the rest around what we see, play reactively?"

"Only choice," Garet sighed. "Snake-Eyes could give us more info."

Greg looked unhappy, but he didn't say anything.

"Yep," Mimi sighed. "But he won't. So let's play by ear."

Eris nodded and fiddled with the remote she had previously abandoned.

"Maybe we should discuss gear," Kagiso added, as though an afterthought. "We were talking about that before. Stun grenades and flashbangs, 'cuz we don't want to kill anyone, but they might be useful. Rubber pellets can be used with Blunderbuss's power, too. Gas canisters, maybe?"

"Canisters will be good, for asking questions, too," Garet answered.

"Any other ideas?" Kagiso prompted.

Mimi shook her head. "Not really. You guys know I don't like hurting people in the first place that much... and you've seem to have everything mostly covered.

"Well, with that outta the way," Amon said, turning back to the T.V. "Round Three!" He grinned at Eris.

"More scared by what comes after," Garet murmured into Mimi's hair. "If this is bad enough for Legend to be here, it must be scary." He stroked her arm with one thumb.

The woman gave another grin. "You're on!"

"It's probably something bad," she agreed. "But for now, we're figuring out the problem. We'll see where to from there."

Garet nodded his agreement. There wasn't much to be gained by agonizing over it now. He glanced up at the TV, then at the window. "Balcony?" he suggested. "To be alone?"

She turned and smiled at him. "Sure."

He didn't bother lifting her off his lap before he stood; he simply carried her towards the sliding glass door. Amon managed to glance away from his game for long enough to let out a piercing wolf-whistle, and Garet shot him a dirty look before proceeding outside and resting her gently on her feet on the balcony. He shut the door behind them.

"Know we said to talk about it after. Not get distracted," he began. "But... it's out in the open now. You okay with this?"

She nodded. "I might've been slightly embarrassed at first when they found out," she motioned towards the door, "But, I am." Mimi glanced at the stars that were appearing in the sky.

"Same," he grunted, following her gaze. "Felt like this for a while. Thought I'd never get the courage to say. Don't want to be distracted, but I think I would be more if I didn't talk now." He wrapped one massive arm around her shoulders, careful not to put the full weight of it on her.

He paused. "Don't know what... I mean," he stalled again. "Don't know how to say. You want to take things slow? I'm out of practice for these things. Not since I got my power."

She blinked. "That's fine. I realize the circumstances around getting it were hard for you. But slow is fine." She leaned into his embrace.

"Fine," he repeated. "But you have different something else in mind? I can try to keep up." He smiled down at her.

She gave a nod and closed her eyes as she simply stood with him. After a moment she mumbled, "Its nice and peaceful out here... too bad we'll be ruining that..."

"There's a few hours," Garet remarked, smiling again. "A little time." In spite of the fact that it was past 8PM, the sun was still on its way to setting. The building sat between them and the sun, however, so they watched as the structure's shadow loomed along ahead. He thought for a moment. "Strange line of work, if you want peaceful," he added, with a short, rumbling chuckle.

She shrugged. "I did sign up for this I suppose. I couldn't see myself as a hero though. I can do enough good like this though... despite being evil."

"You're not evil," Garet replied with more confidence than usual. "I am surprised. I would have thought that you would try to be a hero first. Your sensibilities."

She nodded. "I considered it when I got my powers. But I've seen so much the PRT hasn't done and I wouldn't feel right in their ranks." She sighed. "I can't properly explain it. But like this? I can take from villains whenever we go on a mission against another team. I can help with what I earn." She looked to him. "Sure, I could've done that as a hero but... I feel like it wouldn't mean quite as much to me. If I did it like that it would feel... more expected of me."

Garet nodded slowly. "Think I understand. Do you want to be unexpected, though?" He scratched his chin. "Is it a little strange that a teacher wants to do the unexpected? Not trying to be insulting," he added, as though wondering if such generalizations would make her angry.

"Sometimes the best teachers do the unexpected," she gave a small laugh. "I remember one of my teachers gave us this stupid way to remember a test formula. Everyone thought it was stupid, but everyone got it right; I still remember it."

She paused. "It's fun, being a coach, I mean. But if I didn't suddenly add in an exercise or suddenly break the tedium with a kickball game or something, my students would probably wonder who replaced me."

Garet nodded again. "Sounds fair." He fell silent.

A few moments later, he perked up again. "So," he murmured nervously. "I guess we did this a little bit backwards, huh. So, uh..." Another stall. "Maybe after today, or whatever... do you wanna do something? A movie, or whatever you think is fun?"

"Sure," she smiled. "That sounds fun. But promise me you won't just agree to something you don't like. I have no plans to be the kind of girlfriend that drags her boy to the store and make him just carry her bags around." She gave him a semi-serious glare.

An actual laugh escaped from him. "That's a relief," he said. "I can't imagine being a human forklift, either." He made no note of the irony the statement, given his enhanced strength. He allowed a silence to sit between them for a minute.

"I wonder, sometimes, what the heroes are like," he admitted. "As people, I mean. They live their lives, just like we do. They have friends and jobs and people they care about. I wonder sometimes if we aren't really so different."

"We probably aren't in all honesty," she admitted. "I think we just cause trouble for them, and quite often at that," she laughed.

He shrugged again, but smiled with her. "Well... I guess it doesn't matter much. Lot in life, or whatever." He fell silent again. The sun was finally touching the horizon, if the red in the sky was any indication. "Snake-Eyes said the plan would work. Probably means we don't kill anyone by accident tonight. So that's good."

"Yep. It's a shame he won't share more information with us. It could be useful but, Snake prefers to be mysterious."

His lip quirked into a slightly irritated expression. "That works against us sometimes," he said. "Never even seen his face, and he is supposed to be our team leader. Only seen him in combat once, even if he is a thinker. Starting to think he might be trouble, somewhere down the line."

"Maybe... But... right now we are under him I guess. It would be nice if he were more open with us, but I doubt he will be." She seemed hesitant, worried almost. "It bugs me the most that we know nothing of his thinker power."

"Yes, it worries me that he won't share," Garet agreed. "Like he is expecting us to turn on him, or something."

Mimi sighed. "Who knows... All we know is that he can tell if a mission will go well or not and he knows when we're discussing our mission."

"Mm," he murmured. "Well... at least the next few hours will be good." He tightened his hold on her, and fell silent. The time ticked by in silence, faster than it seemed it should have; there was a knock on the glass door, and Greg poked his head through it.

"We're getting ready to leave," he said. "You both better get ready. Things okay?" he added.

"Mm," Garet said again.

"Yep," Mimi smiled to Garet before pulling the bandana on, back over her face. "Did Eris manage to get her wig back on yet? She needed help last-"

She was cut off by the mentioned cape. "I DID NOT!"

There was a flurry of chuckles through the room. "Sure, sure," Amon teased her, sticking out his tongue and poking the wig on her head.

"I think we're all set," Greg replied. "My stash of gear and weapons and what not is in the tank," he added, gesturing at the metal box in which they had arrived when he teleported them. "We can grab stun-guns and flashbangs and shit from in there, and I can 'port us to the desired location when everyone is ready."

Eris gave Amon and Mimi a glare before putting on the yellow mask she had on previously. "Did not..." She muttered beneath her breath.

"Sounds good," Mimi nodded and looked to Garet. "You ready?"

Garet only retrieved his helmet from the couch, sliding it over his head. Greg did the same with his, and Kagiso put on her mask. "I think we're all pretty good to go," she said. "You two need coffee or something? We have a few minutes. The rest of us had some an hour ago."

Mimi paused. "I'll take a cup." She glanced to Eris. "You better not have-"

She was cut off once again. "Sheesh Mimi! Why are you on my case?" she laughed. "No, I didn't. Even I know how bad I am with caffeine. I had an apple."

Architorque looked at Slugsicle, but he simply shook his head in response. Then, she went and fetched a cup of coffee.

"So, to go over it one more time," Hellion began. "Non-lethal weapons only, stick to the plan that we outl-"

"We get it!" This from Architorque and Redthatch both, simultaneously. "We've been over it like five times already," Redthatch added.

"Fine," Hellion huffed, falling silent.

Mimi smiled beneath her mask as she turned to Architorque. "Thanks, Archi."

Architorque smiled in response. "Well, I'll be in the tank, when everyone's ready," Hellion cut in. "I think Blunder is in there already, he got tired of us. See ya soon." He entered the tank, and the door shut behind him.

Eris began to trail after him. "I don't need to do anything else out here... so I'll just follow him I guess." She gave an exaggerated shrug before entering the room.

Mimi hummed. "You wanna join them, Slug? I'll try to finish my coffee quickly," She laughed.

"I'll stay," he said, flashing her a tiny smile.

"I'm ready, so I'll head in, too," Architorque said.

"Yeah, we'll give you two one last minute of alone time, in case you wanna swap some tongue or something," Redthatch added cheekily. Architorque punched him as they made their way into the tank.

Mimi worked on her cup of coffee rather quickly, seemingly unfazed by the heat. "That's good..." she mumbled under her breath. In between sips, she looked up to Slugsicle. "I'm thinking I'll make my clones after the transport, to make things easier on Hellion." She went to finish off the cup.

"Good idea," Garet replied. "A little humid out. Should be easy for you anyway."

She gave a nod before walking over to the kitchen to put the cup somewhere. She decided to put it in the sink after finding other discarded cups there and headed back to him. "Shall we follow our group?" She asked with a motion to the tank.

He nodded. They joined their teammates in the tank.

"Ready?" Hellion asked.

"Good," Architorque reported. Blunderbuss said nothing, he simply put his hand on Hellion's shoulder.

"Ten-four," Redthatch replied, squeezing his nose shut and cupping his mouth in front of his nose to imitate a police radio.

"Mm," Slugsicle grunted.

"I have been," Eris huffed.

Mimi laughed, "Yep."

"Alright," Hellion nodded. "Let's do this thing."

One uncomfortable lurch later, they were in the middle of the intersection that Snake-Eyes had specified. Clearly, Hellion had been here before; he familiarized himself with the city for just such an occasion.

"Okay," he said. "This is the spot. I'm sure that Snake-Eyes wanted us to be here for a reason, so I'm gonna hit that rooftop there," he pointed, "and try and scope shit out. I'll let you know if I find anything?"

"Sounds good to me," Redthatch said.

"Mm."

There was a nod from Xana as three watery figures formed next to her. Alacrity began to bounce on her feet, seemingly excited at the prospect that something was about to happen after all of their waiting.

Hellion disappeared with a loud _bang,_ and Alacrity found that she was pulled slightly towards the spot that he had vacated. The team peered up, and they saw him on the edge of the roof, scanning the area. It was only about ten seconds before there was another _bang,_ and he appeared several meters away from them, to avoid hitting them with the shockwave that came with his power.

"Damn, Snake-Eyes's timing is good. There's a four-man Wards team coming down the street from that direction, just like he said."

"Good," Architorque replied, stepping forward, as though taking control of the group. "Alacrity, down that alleyway. Get as far as you need. You'll need to hit this intersection fast enough to grab someone and escape down the opposite alley, but not so fast that you tear her in half. You're looking for a black costume with bare arms, got it?"

She gave a nod. "On it, Archi," With that, the girl disappeared down the alley.

"I assume Slug and I are needed in that other alley?" Mimi asked, though her clones were already headed towards it.

"You got it," Architorque replied. "Create some distance. We don't want them to know what we're doing. This should be confusing more than alarming to them. Go!"

Slugsicle immediately began lumbering in the direction she indicated; his strength allowed him to move with a speed that belied his size. Architorque herself took shelter in a different alley, peeking around the corner, while Redthatch hid in yet a third, and Hellion teleported back to the rooftops. The trap was set.

Xana slipped into the alley behind Slugsicle and looked to him. "You ready?" she asked. Her clones stood still as she looked at him.

Slugsicle ground one of his fists into the other by way of reply. He focused on the area, poised for when Alacrity would make her move.

"Clones," he added. "Now."

She nodded. "They're ready." She paused for a half-second before rephrasing it. "I'm ready. I can still make one more if need be, but... it's hard," she murmured.

Slugsicle nodded silently, leaving the decision to her.

The two clones moved into a position of sorts, ready to catch Quilloka upon arrival. The plan was set.


	2. Chapter 2- Leah

Hey it's Morrigan again. The other two are lazy (Jk i'm just the only one available to write the intro at the moment. One of the others are gonna write this next time) so I'm here to bring you chapter two. I guess for now I'll finally let you know what you may call them. The wonderful (cough evil) DM 30CaliberDonut, and my friend tinygreyhawk. In case you were curious, this is one of her characters. Anyways here you go!

TINY IS BREAD

* * *

The Protectorate building in Madison, Wisconsin was something of an out-of-place affair. While the structures that surrounded it were fairly bland and typical as midwestern architecture went, the Protectorate Headquarters stood far taller and prouder than its surroundings, making it admirable and something of an eyesore simultaneously. Inside the building, however, that was a fact that was easy to forget.

The interior seemed to be even more spacious than the outside would lead one to believe. The bright orange carpet, tacky as it was, was offset slightly by the soft blue of the walls and the mahogany furniture and settings. It was the first time Leah had been in a nice building, much less one that was this nice. And this was only the lobby.

"Impressive, huh," Backdraft said, looking down to grin at her. "What do you think?"

In response, Leah shrugged, trying to look nonchalant. In all likelihood, had she not agreed to join the Wards, she probably wouldn't have had the courage to step into a building quite this nice, but she didn't need to let Backdraft know that that was how she felt. The mousy, dirt-caked urchin from the streets rubbed her face, then stiffened self-consciously as a bit of dirt flaked off her nose. She took a look at Backdraft's grinning face and then looked away, trying not to give him the satisfaction of seeing her awe. "It's alright," she said, looking up at the ceiling. "I've...seen better."

Backdraft practically exploded with laughter. "You don't have to hide it! I was floored when I first walked into this place. It's huge! And you'll rub elbows with all the really important guys around here, and meet all the coolest heroes, and there's all this tech and equipment that we have full access to, and all kinds of stuff, it's _so_ exciting."

He glanced furtively around before he continued. "And guess what? I heard some people talking before I went out to pick you up. Get this: fucking _Legend_ is here. Right now."

If Leah had visible eyebrows, Backdraft would've seen them skyrocket to the top of her head. "L-l-legend? _The_ Legend?" She gulped. This was more important than she'd realized. She took a step back and wrapped her arms together in a furtive way, eyes darting every which way. "Y-you know, maybe I shouldn't be here..."

"Ah, c'mon, c'mon c'mon," he chortled, taking her hand and mock-struggling to pull her further inside. "I can tell you wanna meet him. _Everyone_ wants to meet him. I mean... it's fucking _Legend_!"

"Language," came a voice from beside them. There was no one there to have spoken.

"Oh, come _on_ ," Backdraft groaned, rolling his eyes. "We're training to take on criminal gangsters like the Bratva and Ambuscade, and even huge scary monster creatures like the Endbringers, and you're afraid of a swear word? Come on, that doesn't make any sense, Nessie."

A girl materialized a mere four feet away from them, appearing from an effect that looked like light reflecting of pieces of glass that weren't there. Backdraft was head and shoulders taller than she was, and yet she stood with an easy poise that clearly indicated some measure of authority. She wore only a grey tank top and black shorts, and her long, black hair was tied into a loose ponytail behind her. Her bangs reached down nearly to her eyes, but they did nothing to hide the deadpan expression on her face.

"Leah," Backdraft said. "Meet Phantasm, leader of the Madison Wards."

Leah didn't-couldn't speak. Not only had she just been mulling over the probability of her being in the same building as _Legend_ , but then a girl appeared out of nowhere, catching her entirely by surprise. One look at her and Leah knew she was not going to be someone easy to deal with. Halfway through another gulp, she paused and tried to compose herself, remembering her real reason to be here, in this building. _I have to get Danny back, no matter what._ The small girl tried to look Phantasm in the eyes as she spoke, but her courage failed her. "H...hi." She squirmed. She should definitely have thought over her other options before she'd agreed to join the Wards. _I'm in way over my head,_ she thought.

"Greetings," Phantasm said, looking down at Leah. Her expression softened, but only by a hair. "So you are the new girl that Backdraft was so keen to get on the team. Area of effect chaos, if I am remembering correctly. I am guessing that the PRT committee decided that you would in fact join us, if you're here, so, welcome. Call me Nessie. I'd offer my hand, but I am covered in sweat." She did not raise the idea that Leah was still covered in filth from the streets. "Leo, let's show her to her quarters. Afterward, I will show her to where she can wash up, and I will bring the team together for a proper introduction afterward."

"Coolio," Leo replied, pulling off his mask. "Just this way."

"Th...thank you...Nessie?" she said, almost mumbling the other girl's name. Whether it was the building, the strangeness of her current situation or the fact that she was surrounded by people who _didn't_ seem to want to betray her over some small token, Leah felt out of place. She looked over at Backdraft, wanting support, then halted as she saw him take off his mask almost _casually_. "Are you supposed to... No, never mind," she said quickly, not wanting to overstep her boundaries.

"Mm?" An interrogative grunt as he turned to walk backwards, looking quizzically at her. Nessie followed behind her, keeping pace with them. "Aren't I supposed to...? Don't feel like you've gotta be super formal in here, we're all pretty close. I'm sure you will be, too. And there's no such thing as a stupid question here, we're here to show you the ropes," he clarified. "What's up?"

"Uhm..." Leah looked up, trying not to be overwhelmed with the newness of her situation. "You just took your mask off just now, so I guess...I don't know, I guess I had some weird idea we kept them on for the most part...I guess." She winced internally, wondering how stupid she sounded. "Now that I think about it, I must have been thinking kind of wrong..."

"Well, unfortunately, we gotta live our regular lives too," Leo replied. "Go to school, take hero lessons, and all that. We will go on patrols and respond to crises, but that's a pretty limited part of what we do overall. Mostly, they're here to train us to be in the Protectorate, so they feel like they have to shove all the bureaucratic crap down our throats, too."

"Leo," Nessie said, her tone a warning.

"What?" he asked, exasperated. "Can't even express my feelings anymore?" Nessie didn't reply to that.

"Anyway, we're usually not in costume when we're in here. The government doesn't let the press or anyone anywhere near the building, to protect our identities and the identities of the heroes around here, so we're pretty safe so long as we're inside. PRT personnel already know who we are, and the law kinda forces them to keep their mouths shut, so..."

"I realize that 'safe' might be something of a relative term for you, given where you're coming from," Nessie said from behind her; her voice had softened. "But really, you _are_ safe here."

 _Am I, really?_ Leah thought, offering Nessie a shy smile. _I got powers but I can't even control them. How long before I end up hurting someone by accident?_ She looked at Leo as she thought this, then caught herself out. Not wanting to linger on the topic, she tried to think of other things to say. "So uhm...Leo and Nessie..." She turned to both of them as she mentioned their names. "Is...uhm, there are other people in the Wards, right?"

"Including us, there are seven of us," Leo replied, holding his mask by hooking two fingers under it and slinging it casually over one shoulder.

"Eight," Nessie corrected him. "Technically."

"Yeah," Leo replied, his voice halting slightly. "Technically, I guess." They both fell silent at that. Nessie seemed to recover faster. "You'll meet the others later. Four of of them, at any rate."

 _Seven? Eight?_ Leah was confused...by the confusion, more than anything else. She noted their expressions. Mystified, she decided to store away the information for later and instead, more bravely now, began to ask more questions. "Only...uhm, four? Are the others out on patrol or something...?"

"Well, there's us three," Leo said, actually counting on his fingers. "And then there's Quillokka, Rake, Exemplar and Glaze. You... you're probably not gonna... ehrm, you won't meet Raze for a while." Another silence punched through the conversation.

"The rest of us are in the building," Nessie picked up the slack once more. "And you'll meet them once you've cleaned up a little, and we're all a bit more presentable."

Reminded of the state she was in, Leah tensed again, nervous. When was the last time she'd seen a proper bath? A month ago? Maybe three? And that was if she called splashing her hands and face with the remainders of someone's drinking water a proper bath. She remembered her brother, how muddy his face was when she last saw him. She hoped he was getting three meals and a bath a day wherever he was, although that was probably too much to hope. "I'm...really thankful for this...all of this," she said after a while. She bit her lip. "I just wanted to say that. I know it's not much but..."

"Hey, don't sweat it," Leo replied, turning around to walk backwards again. "The people of this city pay us to try to keep them safe. Giving you a place to live and all that, really, you're still the one doing them the favor. I don't know if this really appeals to you, all the heroism stuff, but I gotta say, I like it. Pretty glorious."

"If you're doing it for the glory..." Nessie began.

"Ah, c'mon, yah friggin' killjoy," Leo groused. "Stop taking everything I say so damned seriously."

"Leo is right, though," Nessie cut him off before he could continue. "If you decide to be a hero, giving you a place to stay and food to eat... it's kind of the least they can do, wouldn't you say?"

"I don't...know if I'll be a good hero," Leah began, somewhat hesitatingly. She stopped, thinking about what she was going to say next. _Should I tell them what's worrying me?_ "I'm... actually a bit scared I might not," she admitted, looking at Nessie nervously, not wanting to see the expression on Leo's face. "I can't really control my powers as much as I'd like and I'm scared people will get hurt and...you know..." She felt a wave of numbness sweep over her. _Why am I saying this?_ "I just hope I don't become...a pain, or something."

"I think we have all thought like that, on some level," Leo replied. "Honestly, that's why we're here though. I might bitch about the classes and - no, don't interrupt me, Nessie, come on," he cast a preemptive look at his team leader, who had opened her mouth to admonish him again. "I may hate the classes and all that, but really... this is kind of the life that people like us, people with powers, should live, right? We use our gifts to help people, and we get to live in places like this. It's like a storybook. It's pretty awesome."

Nessie rolled her eyes. "Nothing storybook about it. It's necessity. We do what we must, and we are given the resources by those who cannot do what we do."

"That girl," Leo whispered loud enough for Nessie to hear, even pointing at her obviously, "is _so_ unromantic." Nessie deadpanned at him.

Leah let out a small giggle despite herself, putting her hand up to her mouth when she realized, almost in surprise. When was the last time she had laughed-or even smiled genuinely, for that matter? "I'm sorry," she said, still smiling. "It's...uhm... It is really nice here and I'm glad but also...you guys are a lot nicer than the people I'm used to...dealing with. And uhm...for the record..." Here, her smile turned into a vaguely sheepish grin as she turned to face Leo. "I don't think I've really ever read a storybook...?"

Leo had started to turn back around to keep walking as she spoke, but when she finished speaking he spun back around. His expression was one of genuine sympathy.

"That's... jeez, that's like, the saddest thing I've ever heard. Well... I guess we'll find a way to fix that, at some point. Anyway, we're here."

They had proceeded into a large, open room. Various computer desks, workstations, and gym equipment littered the open area, and doors lined the perimeter of the room. There was a fit-looking boy using the bench press on the far side of the room, and another one fiddling with some kind of tech at one of the workstations. Leo stopped by one of the doors. "This one's you. Check it out, make yourself comfortable. I'd suggest that you unpack, but... you didn't bring much." He shrugged. "I'll leave you in Nessie's care for now. Gonna go clean up myself, and I'll see you when our fearless leader brings us all together, 'kay?"

"Uh...uhm!" Leah panicked as he turned to walk off. He was the only familiar thing in this strange new place, and well, of course, there was that whole thing about...well...he was really _cute_ and she really didn't know how to qualify how she felt when he was there and when he wasn't. It was _weird_. She fumbled for words before she realized how she looked and settled on something before she looked even more out of place. "G...good luck on the rest of your day...?"

Leo laughed as he made his way to another of the rooms in the area. "It ain't gonna be that long! I'll see you in a little bit." He tossed a wave over his shoulder, and sauntered into his own room.

Once he had disappeared beyond his door, Nessie spoke.

"First things first," she said. "We need to clean you up a bit. We can't have a member of the Wards looking like she just stepped in off the street, no matter how true that might be. Come with me." She approached yet another door in the same, large room, this one marked with the feminine symbol that often graced public bathrooms. "This is the girls bathroom, shower, and locker room. You can keep your exercise gear in here, when it gets issued to you." She pointed at the stalls on the left. "Self explanatory, I think. Lockers are in the middle there, you can pick any of them that are unoccupied. Showers are through here," she added, walking into an enclosure on the right. The showers looked like Leah might imagine prison showers to appear, though the white tiles that covered the floors, walls and ceilings were cleaner than clean; they seemed to gleam in the harsh fluorescent light. Nothing separated one shower from the next; it was something of a communal affair, as many things in this building seemed to be.

"I'll grab you a towel set," Nessie said, stepping back out of the enclosure. "Why don't you wash up? I will be right back."

"Uhhhh..." How was Leah to explain that she had never really used a shower properly before? She held her arms together uncertainty, wondering how to bring it up; the only cleaning up she had ever been required to do was wiping her mother's drunken messes off the floor, and as for hygiene...Leah didn't understand how other people had clean, sparkling teeth or clean, untangled hair. She understood the concept of it, but not _how_. The cleanest she ever got was during the few times she had accidentally walked into her own storms, blowing dust (and in one instance, clothes) off of herself. She was not fond of that method, however, as it always left her feeling like her skin had just been sandpapered. She looked down at her feet. How did one broach the subject? "Uhm...I was wondering if..."

She looked Nessie in the eyes, feeling the embarrassment creep into her face. Before she could stop herself, she opened her mouth. "How...how do I use the shower?!" The words echoed loudly in the silence, and Leah's eyes went wide with horror.

Leah's blurted question was met by a few long seconds of silence. Then, very, very slowly, Nessie's head appeared in the enclosure's entrance. Her expression of bewilderment was the most emotion that Leah had yet seen on the older girl's face. "You... what?" Nessie uttered lamely. It took her a few more seconds to compose herself.

"Forgive me, I wasn't aware of how much..." she blinked a couple of times, unable to find the words. Instead, she simply moved on. "I... I guess I'll show you. I need to shower, too, anyway. Let me get you some towels, and, uh..." She halted again, and then simply moved out of the room. Leah could hear her muttering under her breath as she exited the room; the sound of the door shutting gently behind her echoed through the hard shower area.

Leah stood there, paralyzed by her own sudden outburst and then Nessie's subsequent reaction to it. She was now even more tense than she had been at the entrance to the building-the Protectorate headquarters-her new home. Leah paused, letting that sink in. Her new home. The last time she had had a home was two years ago-if it could be called a home. Between her mother's boyfriends of the week (or day, at times), a crying toddler to feed as well as her own lack of self-preservation, Leah sometimes wondered how she'd survived those first 12 years of her life. Then, when she had taken the sleeping Danny and absconded her mother's dingy little apartment (with its one bedroom that they had been forced to share with multitudes of strangers), she had not been equipped with either brawn, brain or skills. She had survived long enough to get picked up by a roaming rat pack, and they went from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, filching from unwary passersby, the local shops, other homeless. She remembered how one time she had found a scarf in a dumpster behind an apartment complex that probably hadn't seen repair in at least two decades. It was checkered black and red, and it was warm enough to keep the normally irritable Danny from whimpering through the cold nights whenever Jamie would send the siblings off to scrounge for more food.

 _Jamie_ , she thought, her fists clenching reflexively as she remembered his pudgy face, his stooped stature, his sneer. And the laugh when he took away her little brother from her. Then, the awakening, when she tore up brick, mud and water and flung it at his large form, ineffectually, unable to control it.

And now, she was here. Her new home. She would find Jamie, and through him, she would find her brother.

Unaware of Leah's line of thought, Nessie returned to the washroom, shutting the door behind her in an identically soft manner. After a moment, she entered the enclosure once more, hanging a towel on a hook nearest to the shower head that Leah stood under. She hung a second one on an adjacent hook. She still looked moderately perplexed.

"So, the knob there controls the shower. The little arrow there tells you what temperature it's set at, and pulling it back turns the water on. I don't know what you would find comfortable, so I would put it in the middle and adjust it to your liking. Uh... I don't know what other questions you have, so, if you think of anything, don't hesitate to ask me, okay?" She cranked her own shower up to the highest setting, where the indicator was a bright red, and yanked on the knob. The ensuing spray of water was last with thick vapor, and Leah could feel the heat from where she stood a couple of meters away.

Leah had been staring into the mirror without realizing it, and when Nessie spoke, she jumped, not having heard the other girl come in. She gathered what remained of her confidence together, long enough to say "Th...thank you, Nessie," before she turned to the showering contraption that looked as though it could rain death from above. Literally, if the heat from Nessie's stall was anything to go by. She made a note to herself to _not_ turn it to the red arrow, and decided the wisest course of action was to follow Nessie's advice.

When the water came down, Leah tested it by dipping a foot in the stream that shot down from the head. The moderate temperature seemed adequate, and Leah cautiously stepped into the stream without taking her clothes off.

Nessie spluttered, half-choking and half-laughing as Leah drenched her clothing. "W-wait! The point of a shower is to actually clean your body. You are going to have to take those off, so you can wash the grit and sweat off yourself." Her befuddled expression was interrupted by a smile that she was desperately trying to stave away. "I suppose I'm going to have to show you how to use soap, too, aren't I?"

Leah blinked. "...soap?"

Nessie could no longer contain her laughter, and she broke out into a full-on fit of giggles that seemed wildly out of character. "Oh, dear," she chuckled when it died down. "You have so much to learn. I can't imagine what it's been like for you. Come here," she offered Leah a hand, and led her back to the locker room after snagging the two towels that she had hung up. "Leave your clothes here, in the future, before you step into the shower room. There isn't really anywhere to put them. I probably should have done this earlier, so it's kind of my fault."

Gingerly, she stripped herself out of her gym gear, then wrapped the towel around herself. "You should do the same. Do you need any help, or are you good?"

Leah blushed heavily, something that might have been visible under the patchy layers of mud that now dripped from her face and body. The filthy rags that subbed in for clothes now clung tightly to her skinny, shrunken form, and she held herself at a small distance from Nessie as she peeled the stringy material off of her body. It seemed a shame to wrap the rather pristine and soft towel around the filth that caked her skin-especially since the towel was hell of a lot comfortable than the _thing_ she had on-but she followed Nessie's example and covered herself clumsily with the other one, dripping muddy water all over it.

Nessie watched the affair, looking almost crestfallen. "I really need to stop assuming things," she murmured to herself. "It's fine. We'll figure it out. Let's go back."

She lead Leah back to the shower again. "Hang up your towel," she instructed, "step into the water, and I'll show you what soap does, okay?"

Leah blushed even harder, realizing she'd messed up somehow. "Oh...okay..." She peeled the towel off herself with the same gingeriness she put it on with and hung it up. Covering her chest with her arms subconsciously, she stepped into the stream and stood there, staring blankly at Nessie.

Nessie, too, hung up her towel. Leah could tell right off the bat, now, that Nessie was very athletically built; slender muscles rippled under her arms, and - even more prominently - around her abdomen. Her legs were thick with muscle, too; it was clear that she spent quite a lot of time exercising and sculpting her physique. She wet her hands in the stream from Leah's shower, spurted some of the contents onto her hands, and lathered them up. "Will you be alright if I touch you? Just your arm," she clarified, "so you can see what happens."

Leah nodded nervously, holding out an arm. She still covered her breasts with the other arm, trying not to reveal her sizable-rather oversized on her frail frame-chest.

Nessie chose one of the filthiest parts of the outstretched arm, and rubbed the lathered soap into it. Once she was finished, she indicated the stream of water. "Go on, wash it off. Soap is good at getting dirt and grit off of you. Wash as much of yourself as you can reach, like I showed you. If you need help with your back later, I can do that, okay? Oh, but don't get it in your eyes. That stings."

With that, she moved back to her own, steaming-hot stream, and began to shower herself.

Leah put her arm in the stream and marvelled as the lather washed off, revealing an area of clean, pale skin underneath. Emboldened by this new turn of events, she did as Nessie instructed, making sure to lather herself up as much as possible (she almost managed to look like a monster made out of bubbles) before she dunked her head under the stream, washing away all the impurities that caked her body. With them, she felt lighter than she ever had before, at least in her living memory. She looked down at her arms and legs; had she always been this pale?

"I'm clean!" She blurted out before reddening in embarrassment. Why was she so apt at making herself sound ridiculous today?

Nessie took the obvious statement in stride. "That's what a good shower can do," she said, rinsing herself off in turn. "Hygiene is important." She looked over Leah's tiny - or, mostly tiny - form. "I'm surprised," she remarked. "Given how long you've been out there, and you didn't know how to clean yourself, I'm surprised that you don't have more skin problems. Looks like you got lucky. You should take at least one shower a day, actually, to keep yourself healthy. Okay? And it's good to wash away sweat when you exercise."

"Just turn the water off when you're done, like this," she said as she cut off her stream. Nessie's alabaster skin had turned quite pink from the heat, but it didn't seem to bother her. "Just push the knob forward."

Leah pushed the knob as she was told, and shivered as the air made contact with her skin. She reached for the towel, but immediately shrank back, regretting her earlier actions as the towel dismally dripped mud even as she touched it. Not wanting to ruin her shower, she looked at Nessie, forlorn. "Uhm..."

Nessie retrieved her towel from the hook, and held it out to her. "Take mine," she said. "It's clean. I'll go fetch myself another one. Just dry yourself off, and I'll get you some clothes, while I'm out there, and then you'll get to meet the team. Sound good?"

Leah nodded enthusiastically, relieved she didn't have to use the mud-ridden towel, and started drying herself off. She rubbed her face with great vigour, rejoicing in the feel of the soft towel against her nose and cheeks, and proceeded to dry herself off. The process of trying to figure out how to dry her hair was the most difficult, and after a moment she gave up on doing it properly and simply wrapped it up in the towel and squeezed the bundle between her small hands ineffectually.

Nessie smiled at the sight. "I'll go grab myself a new towel, and some clothes for both of us, okay?" She started towards the door, still entirely undraped.

Leah, awakening from her cleanliness-induced stupor, looked up from the now mostly wet towel and noticed Nessie's state of undress. "Wait!" She said, before she could stop herself. "Are you going out like that?"

Nessie turned around to look back at her, and a coy smile spread across her face. "I see you forgot how we met," she said. "Don't worry, I'm going to be fine."

Leah saw the same light-on-glass-shards effect that she had seen before, and Nessie vanished. Then, as though on its own, the door to the bathroom opened and closed as an invisible girl passed through it, unseen.

Leah gaped.

Then, remembering the towel, she continued drying herself off in an almost giddy euphoria.

When Nessie returned, she opened and closed the door silently. She appeared in front of Leah once more, with that same glittering light effect. Conspicuously, she was now in costume.

She wore a white, skin-tight bodysuit, with black armor over her chest and shoulders. Her visor covered the upper half of her face, with a pattern like two, black, angry eyes emblazoned on it. Her straight black hair roamed free, now, spilling around her shoulder, chest and back. A pair of black wrist guards and black boots completed the outfit.

"Here," she said, holding out a pair of black fatigues, and a black tee. "I hope I got the sizes right. Since you don't have a proper costume yet, this will have to do for now. I'll speak to Rake and the PRT about getting you something that suits your needs. Okay?"

"Oh...okay..." Leah shrugged into the plain costume and noted how comfortable it was compared to her own clothing. _Mental note to self: never wearing those again._ "Thank you for all of this..."

"Hey," Nessie replied gently. "You're a teammate. We do what we can for our teammates. It's how we are, and how we survive."

She walked towards the door, and paused after she had opened it. "By the way," she added, "Come on out. We've got a surprise for you."

"A surprise?" Leah didn't know how to feel. On the one hand she was grateful for all that she had just experienced today, in her new home. On the other hand...surprises? Handling them were not in her area of expertise. "What sort of...uhm, surprise?"

"Come find out," Nessie called, and the door closed behind her.

Leah gulped, readied herself and pried open the door, gingerly poking her head out around the corner before the rest of her followed suit.

The sight that greeted her then was nothing short of glorious.

Nessie - Phantasm - stood at the head of the group, and the others flanked her. Backdraft - back in his orange-and-white, flame-patterned costume - and Quillokka - in a black, skin-tight bodysuit that left her arms exposed, a white half-skirt, composite-knuckled gloves and a half-mask that covered her lower face - stood to Phantasm's right. Rake - in an intimidating set of dark-blue power armor, sporting two enormous gun barrels that peeked over his shoulders - and Glaze - in a full bodysuit the appeared to be made of liquid chrome - stood to Phantasm's left. And, most impressively, Exemplar floated above the others, his stark white bodysuit made of a pearlescent material that gave him an angelic quality; even his cape seemed to billow in a wind that wasn't there.

"Welcome," Phantasm said, "To the Madison Wards."

Leah stood stock still for a moment, taking in the sight. It hit her all at once-the clothes, the other Wards and then, the fact that she was now one of them. Her mouth, now working overtime, decided to blurt out the first thing that came to mind. "Do I get a name too?"

"You'll need one," Backdraft nodded. "It's gotta suit your power, but be suitably ambiguous enough that it doesn't totally advertise what you do. I can help you brainstorm on that one, if you want."

"Hey, hey now," Glaze piped up. "She's gonna be on a team with _all_ of us, you know. I think we're all gonna want a little bit of input. How often do you get to help someone come up with their friggin' _cape name?_ "

Quillokka huffed. "Just let her come up with by herself," she said, rolling her eyes; her speech was imperfect, and heavily accented. "She will come up with name she wants."

"Wasn't your name given to you by your father?" Rake pointed out.

"Yes," Quillokka replied matter-of-factly. "But I choose to take it, too."

"Then she can _choose_ to take a name she likes, even if we happen to suggest it?" Glaze offered, a snarky twinkle in his eye.

Quillokka scowled at him for a moment, but said nothing further.

"Obviously she get to choose her own name," Backdraft said. "I was just offering help coming up with ideas, that's all."

Leah looked from one Ward to another as they spoke, bewildered by the input she was getting from them. Was this how it was in the PRT? She bit her finger nervously, thinking about her next move. "I mean, I wouldn't mind input," she started, looking at Backdraft and then, turning to Nessie before looking at the rest of them-subconsciously, towards the most familiar people in the room. "I was thinking of something like 'Windmill'," she continued nervously. "Since I make...well, storms happen."

"If that's what you-" Phantasm started, but Rake cut her off.

"Uh, that doesn't strike you as, uh," he paused. "Kind of mundane? Maybe a little un-intimidating? Don't mean to step on your idea, but..."

"He's right," Glaze said more forcefully. "It sounds serene, not like a fighter."

" _You_ sound like donut," Quillokka taunted him. "Frosting is not very intimidating."

"Hey, it's a cool-sounding word," Glaze replied defensively. "And it's a pretty accurate description of what I do, when you think about it."

"I think Windmill could work," Exemplar shrugged, floating down from where he was positioned. His cape stopped flapping. "I mean, we don't want to make her sound like a villain, like Rake and Raze d- oh. Shit, I'm sorry, man," he cast a worried look at Rake.

The tinker's expression had fallen, hard. He stared at the floor, the wind taken out of his sails in an instant. "It's fine," he said quietly, but he looked anything but.

"I think maybe something to do with storms would suit you better," Backdraft spoke up, changing the topic as fast as he could. "Something like... Typhoon? But your power is a little more sudden than a typical storm, so an explosive idea?"

"GRENADO!" Glaze shouted.

"That's lame," Quillokka snorted.

"I guess you're right, Windmill does sound a bit...uh yeah...so...I like Typhoon...but I feel like it's missing something..." Leah twiddled her thumbs. "I was thinking of something that involved maybe...more like spinning? Throwing things around? "

"Whirlwind?" Phantasm suggested. "Not too aggressive, but not to be taken lightly, either."

"That," Glaze said, "is a cool name." Exemplar nodded.

"I approve," Backdraft agreed. "Leah?"

She nodded excitedly, almost a little too forcefully. It sounded better than Windmill, to be honest, and it was a better fit for her than something like Typhoon. "I like it," she said, almost to herself. She looked up at the rest of the Wards, a different feeling coursing through her. Happiness? Belonging? She couldn't be sure. "So, uhm, hi guys. I'm...Leah, but you can also call me Whirlwind..."

"Welcome to the team," Glaze said, stepping forward as he offered her a hand; the shifting, silvery liquid that coated him peeled back as he reached out, revealing a white bodysuit beneath. On closer inspection, it became apparent that he had covered his costume with mercury.

Rake raised his head to nod, but he had shifted into a more depressive state. Phantasm, having already introduced herself, turned to tend to Rake, whispering into his ear. Backdraft approached Leah, and patted her on the back. "Feels good, huh?" he grinned. Exemplar stepped up beside him, saying nothing, but added his presence to what the others uttered. Quillokka also approached, extending a hand to lean against Exemplar, less as an intimate gesture and more as though she were using the burly boy as she would a wall. To his credit, Exemplar didn't move a muscle as she did so.

"It will be nice to have more girls on the team," she said with a smirk. "We have been so outnumbered."

"Thanks, uhm...Glaze?" She said, trying not to mess up his name as she took his hand. She'd known of the other Wards before since Leo had talked about them, and she had seen them around doing patrols, but she had never been very good about keeping tabs on them, especially since most of the time she had been busy trying to not get on their radar. Now she was a part of the Wards. Life was funny sometimes.

Speaking of Leo, however, she felt the hairs on her arm rise as he stepped up to pat her on the back. She felt tense around him, in an uncomfortable but not unpleasant way. Leah made an attempt at a grin. "It's uh, I'm really happy," she replied nervously, flushing a deep red despite herself. She turned to Quillokka, thankful for someone else to direct her attention towards. "Has...has it always been that way?"

"Not always," Quillokka replied, and despite the flippant nature with which she delivered the comment, something dark passed through her expression. She lowered her voice when she continued. "A little more even, when Raze was with us. She is not, anymore."

Everyone in the group fell quiet, at that, and Exemplar cast a short glance at Rake and Phantasm, biting his lip.

"Nasty business, that," Backdraft muttered.

Leah realized she'd made some sort of social faux pas. She wrapped her arms around herself nervously, feeling the tension in the air. She'd noticed Exemplar's glance over in Rake's direction, and recalled his comment. What had happened with Raze? She wondered if she should ask. "Uhm, what happened-I mean!" She reddened. She really needed to keep her mouth shut. "I'm sorry if I brought up anything unpleasant..."

"Short, less messy version," Glaze whispered. "Raze was our teammate. She was capture by some unknown group of capes about six months ago, and they treated her really bad. She... had to leave the team, after that. She's still around, but... let's just say she doesn't see anyone but doctors much, anymore."

"And the occasional greedy cape researcher," Exemplar added.

" _Less_ messy version, Cliff," Backdraft said, just a little harshly. Exemplar fell quiet.

"Only Nessie and me left after, for girls," Quillokka finished, shrugging her shoulders, as though trying to discard the bleak atmosphere. "You make things more even, again."

"Oh..." Leah didn't know how to respond. How did people usually respond to tragic incidents? "I'm sorry to hear that..." She flushed. Part of her felt guilty; she didn't know Raze, and here she was, in Raze's team, almost kind of...taking her place. She chanced a glance at Backdraft. Was that why she had been recruited? "I, uh...I hope I can be a good addition to the team," she said, lamely. Sometimes it was just impossible to know what exactly to say.

"I'm sure you will," Backdraft said confidently, gradually returning to his usual self. He looked up, as Phantasm patted Rake on the back of his armor, and the tinker trudged away, shutting himself into his room.

Phantasm approached them. "Now that we've welcomed the new member," she said. "There's another reason you are all staying here for the night. As you all know, Legend is upstairs with the Protectorate members. We will be attending his brief in thirty minutes. Do restrain yourselves from trying to get him to sign your costumes or something."

"But it's _Legend_ ," Exemplar complained. Phantasm rolled her eyes.

"If you're planning to be in the Protectorate someday, then I'm sure you'll get another chance to meet him. Now, we're on the job, and we don't need him distracted. If he's here, something really serious is going down. Don't know what it is, but we'll need to be alert and professional. Don't make us look like anything other than a true superhero team in front of the leader of the Triumvirate, got it?"

There was a chorus of "Yes, ma'am"s from the team, though Exemplar was a bit slower than the others.

"Meet here in 25, and we'll head upstairs. Dismissed."

"Wait, uhm, we get to meet Legend? _Now_?" She looked at Backdraft for reassurance, agitated by the sudden turn of events. "Uhm, do I have to meet him, too...?"

"Looks like we'll be in a room with him, yeah," Backdraft answered excitedly. "Maybe just listening to him talk. Dunno if we'll get to actually interact with him. Still, this is gonna be fuckin' _awesome,_ " he clenched his fists, and shook them in front of him. "I have _lived_ for this day!"

"I have a Legend action figure my mom got for me, when I first got my powers," Exemplar said quietly. "Can you imagine if I got him to sign it? Legend signed by Legend?"

"You have thought about this too much," Quillokka sniggered.

"Not my fault he's like the coolest hero ever," Exemplar shrugged; if he was offended, he showed no indication.

"Still, it'll be great to see him," Glaze said. "Though I really wonder what could have brought him _here_ , of all places."

"We'll find out," Backdraft replied. "In about 24 minutes."

Leah sighed, dejected. She had looked at Backdraft for help, hoping he'd take the hint, but not only did it fly over his head, it had apparently jumped straight through the ceiling and never came back down for all the Wards. She didn't feel comfortable being in a room with Legend, considering she had stolen a loaf of bread just last night and had been chowing on the remainders of it this morning with venomous abandon when Backdraft arrived to try to convince her for the umpteenth time to join the Wards. She made sure to finish the loaf, in case things went wrong, but her breakfast now sat in her stomach queasily. "Uhm...I guess I'll be in my room, then..."

Only now did Backdraft get the picture, and she followed her as she began to walk away. "Everything alright?" he peered at her quizzically. "Did I say something wrong?"

She flushed, her emotions fluctuating between frustration, irritation and...whatever it was she was feeling for Backdraft. "No, not really..." She sighed again. "I just...I hope he's okay with me there, is all."

"Hey," Backdraft said, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "He asked the Wards to be there. You're one of us now. It's gonna be fine, okay?" He smiled; he radiated with tenacious confidence. "Besides, if you're gonna join the team, you've gotta know what's going on in the city. Major players, non-major players, current events, all of that shit. So it's better that you're here now, so you know what's up. Right?"

Leah stiffened as he placed another hand on her shoulder and quickly realizing it, she tried to pass it off. "Y-yeah, sure. Um, so, do you have any clue why Legend's here...?"

"Haven't the foggiest," Backdraft shrugged. "But Nessie's right, I'm betting it's pretty bad. He's not here with the rest of the Triumvirate, so I doubt it's as bad as an Endbringer attack. Maybe some crazy foreigners with stupidly strong powers or something. But who knows? Thankfully, I don't think it's the Slaughterhouse Nine, but we can't be too careful. We'll find out soon enough."

"Th-th-the Slaughterhouse Nine?" Leah repeated, shakily. "I don't think I'm ready for that to happen..."

"I don't think anyone is ever ready for the Nine," He pulled off his mask, and pursed his lips. "But yeah, you won't have to fight them, even if they are here. For Wards, S-class threats are strictly voluntary. Can't have kids running off and getting killed in horrible ways, doesn't make the PRT or the Protectorate look very good, I guess." He shrugged. "Either way, I think they were in, like, Oregon somewhere around the Newberry Crater, just a few days ago, so I doubt they've come this far this fast. Not like they can show a passport and hop on a plane."

"You, uh..." Leah took a small step back, putting some distance between herself and him. She still felt tense, and until she figured out what it was exactly that made her react this way to him, she didn't trust her reactions around him. She held herself again, her posture slightly slumped over. "Do you, uh, like the Protectorate?"

"They're not perfect," he shrugged. "But my odds of making it out alive are better here than they are a lot of other places. Certainly better than when I was running around pissing off as many villains as I was able to. Took more of my share of beatings, I can tell you. Here, we've got resources, food, beds, armor, and," he winked at her, "best of all, camaraderie. I didn't realize how much I'd missed having friends and shit until I made some again. Being a hero definitely beats being a villain. Doesn't matter how much money you make if you're dead, right?"

Leah laughed uneasily. "I..." She looked off to one side. "I don't really...I've never really had friends before. Not in the sense you'd think. So I guess...I didn't know what I was missing out on?" She held herself tighter. "It's always just been about surviving for me. Once I got my powers...it was easier. People were scared of me, of what I could do. But I'd lost Danny...and it's been a long time and I wish..." She sighed. "...I wish I could've stopped them back then. Stopped Jamie. I don't...really care that much about money. Just enough to survive and...just..." She shrugged uneasily. "Just find Danny again. And protect him better this time, so no one gets to take him away. Or hurt him."

"Well," he said, patting her lightly on the back. "You've never really been in a better position to do that, if you want my opinion. I know I already told you this, but now you've experienced it. You have resources here. People that will help you with you problems. If you want to open up a missing persons case, well, you're a Ward now. The PRT will listen to you. You may have to cut through a forest of red tape, but," he sheepishly scratched the back of his neck. "Well, it's not like you'd have even been able to get a word in edgewise, on the street, right? There's a chance now. A pretty good one. The PRT and the Protectorate have a _lot_ of shit at their disposal, and from what I can tell, they actually do give a shit about our well-being and whatnot."

Leah nodded. "I noticed...kinda." She grinned sheepishly. "It's all been really nice...and everyone has been, too. I'm not...I've only joined like...today. So I don't really know about all the things that the PRT is doing wrong, but I get the impression they're at least trying to do right...I think." She rubbed her arm and glanced at her door, almost longingly. Socialization was not her strong point. Hanging around Backdraft was even worse. "Uhm...speaking of nice things, maybe I should go check out my room, I haven't really had a chance to look around...and stuff?"

"Cool, cool," Backdraft nodded. "Well, I'll probably be out here, talking to people and shit. Lemme know if you have any questions, or comments or anything. I'll knock when it's time to head up. Sound good?"

She nodded. "Th...thanks." She offered him a smile and a wave before she made a beeline for her room, retreating behind the door and putting it solidly between herself and a very good-looking teenager. Taking a moment to breathe in a sigh of relief, she finally took a look around her room, trying to see what was what.

It wasn't a large affair, but, according the Nessie, it was all hers. There was a twin bed on the far side of the room, made up so tightly that it looked like she could bounce a coin off of it. A small, metal nightstand sat beside it, with a single lamp and a coaster resting on it. A desk sat beside that, opposite a bookshelf on the other side of the room that was devoid of books or anything else. A closet sat beside the bookshelf, with an addition that looked like it was made to hold a costume, with a mannequin inside of it. A switch just inside the door controlled a ceiling light, which glowed brightly but not uncomfortably. It was emptier than just about any room that Leah had ever seen, but that also meant it was devoid of the trash and dirt that she had become accustomed to. It looked pristine.

Leah gingerly sat on the bed testing it. It was probably the most comfortable bed she had ever sat on, let alone lay on, and she felt a spark of anticipation for when it was time to go to sleep. She briefly pondered if the others also had beds like this, and then came unbidden an image of Leo, lying on his bed. She quickly shook his head. _No, we do_ _ **not**_ _think about the person we just...ran away...from._ She flushed. What was wrong with her? She could've just said no to joining and that would've been the end of it. _Or not_ , she thought, _Since he started looking out for me like what, two months ago?_ She sighed. Either way, it was still a good deal at the end of it all. She could find Danny, and this was a good place to start.

The remaining twenty minutes passed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. Backdraft rapped on her door three times with his knuckles. "Ready to go?" he called through the door. "The meeting's in five, and we're all out here now."

"Um, yeah!" Leah stood up, still muttering inwardly to herself about things she was trying not to think about. She gathered her nerves together, walked to the door and pulled it open.

The Wards were all there, still in full costume, with Phantasm standing at the head of them. "Just follow us," she told Leah. "Don't need to say anything during the briefing if you don't want to, but if you have anything you do want to say, don't hesitate to speak up. The PRT respects us and what we bring to the table, so don't feel like you're intruding, alright?"

"And help us keep Exemplar at least a hundred feet away from Legend at all times," Glaze laughed.

"I'm not a stalker," Exemplar practically pouted.

Leah offered Glaze a weak smile. "Uhm, I'm not sure how I would, other than wrecking the room, but uh...I'll try...?"

There were a few chuckles at that. "When I said 'what we bring to the table,'" Nessie replied sarcastically. "I didn't mean actually bring it to the meeting table. That would involve a lot of paperwork. Alright, everyone, let's head up." It wasn't a march, exactly, but they moved as a group to the elevator. Backdraft lagged behind slightly, to keep pace with Leah.

"You, uh...excited?" She grinned at him nervously, trying very hard to not blurt out exactly what she had been thinking about for the last twenty minutes.

"Hell yeah," he grinned. "Not every day you get to meet one of the five, like, most powerful parahumans in the entire world. Even if we are just here to listen to him tell us how our city's fucked or something." It was clearly a joke, he laughed at his own statement. "Still, it's gonna be pretty great. Think about it. Pretty much everyone on the planet knows his name, an we get to see him in person. It's like... it's like, meeting a famous actor, but he's a guy that runs around saving the world. I'd take a chance to meet him before any actor I can think of."

They piled into the elevator, and it took off. It was surprisingly fast, and more comfortable than it should have been. Tinker tech, no doubt.

When the doors opened, the orange theme was gone, replaced by a dark blue. The Protectorate symbol was on the wall, directly past a receptionist's desk. It was small, though, much smaller than the one that had been in the lobby. There was no one behind the desk, however, and a paper sign on it pointed them directly to the meeting room.

"Here we go..." Backdraft said under his breath.

Leah mentally froze as she saw the symbol, and even more when she saw the arrow leading to the meeting room. Without thinking, she pulled at Backdraft's suit. "I have something to confess," she squeaked at him as quietly as possible so the others couldn't hear, "and I'm scared that if I don't say it now I'm gonna say it in front of Legend and it's going to be horrible-"

Backdraft took a step backwards to address what she was saying. "Whoa, whoa, take a breath. What is it? Is everything okay?" He put his hands on her arms, as though to steady her.

"I stole a loaf of bread last night and I had it for breakfast this morning and I feel really really really guilty-"

He blinked. Then he blinked again. "Uhm," was all he managed, for several long moments. When he finally put his thoughts together, he said: "I... don't think that's a big deal. Besides, now that you're here, do you plan to keep stealing bread? No, right? So don't worry about it. Alright?" He ruffled her hair. "Come on. They'll be waiting for us inside."

Leah unfroze, then froze again as he ruffled her hair. "Th...thanks." She patted the place where he ruffled her gently as possible before she followed him in, hair frizzier than ever.

The atmosphere of the room was busy. PRT officers, PRT suits, and a few Protectorate capes were bustling around, making the last-minute preparations for the briefing to come. Leah recognized Tumbler, in her bright green costume, and Brisk, in his white one; capes that the entire city knew by sight, either from seeing them on the street or at events, or from the billboards and advertisements the PRT used to curry favor with the public. The Wards had seats arranged for them; there was even a seat for Leah, as two chairs in the isolated section the other sat in were empty. Phantasm waved for them to hurry, and Backdraft picked up his pace. When they arrived, he sat Beside Glaze, one seat away from Phantasm and one seat away from the end of the row, where Leah was clearly supposed to sit down.

"Where did you go?" Phantasm hissed at him.

"Just having a brief word with the newbie," he replied. "She got nervous. Don't worry about it."

"It would have looked better if we had all entered the room together," Phantasm groused in return.

"You're such a stickler," Backdraft grinned. "You sure you wanna be a hero? Maybe you'd be better in the PR department."

She glowered at him for a moment, before returning her attention to the makeshift stage. The hubbub was slowly beginning to die down as people found their seats.

Leah quickly took her seat, not wanting to cause a commotion. She looked around for Legend, hoping she didn't blurt out something stupid like "I ATE BREAD!" the moment he walked in. No, zip that, she had to make sure she didn't, because she already caused trouble for Backdraft by having her little anxiety attack outside, and she'd probably create more trouble for the Wards if she opened her mouth in here. Resolving to keep as quiet as possible, she pursed her lips together and kept an eye out for Legend.

He wasn't difficult to spot. He stood from a position at the table, on the far side of them, his blue-green costume and strong jaw a familiar sight to absolutely everyone in the room. Exemplar made a very strange squeaking noise as he appeared, and took center-stage.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Protectorate capes," he nodded in the direction in which they sat, "and Wards," he added, turning to address their group. Exemplar's squeaking intensified. "I will unfortunately need to begin by telling you that everything you hear from this point forward will be highly classified, and it is a matter of public safety that these details are not revealed to family, friends, or absolutely anyone else. This must be absolutely clear." Complete silence followed his opening statement.

Leah was almost compelled to comment on Exemplar's stellar imitation of an excitable rat, but kept her mouth firmly shut. She definitely did not want to attract even more attention by screaming "BREAD" or even worse, making a comment about how someone should stuff cheese into his mouth.

A few hours and the Wards were already being a bad influence on her.

After Legend had permitted a moment of silence to emphasize the weight of his words, he continued. "I would tell you not to worry, and I _will_ tell you that you need not worry about an Endbringer attack, or a visit from the Slaughterhouse Nine for the time being," he said. "But to be honest, this _is_ a matter to be worried about. A different group has arrived here in Madison. We are not sure what their goals are, and tracking their movements has proven to be exceedingly difficult. They tend to operate under the radar, and as such, they have not given themselves a public name. We have taken to simply calling them The Hangmen."

At that moment, Legend realized that he had left the remote that was used to control the slide show behind him back at his seat, but it didn't even slow him down. From one finger, he fired a tiny, wire-thin laser that turned at a right angle in the air to strike the button on the remote that brought up a series of pictures behind him. Faces, with redacted names, but the pictures looked dated. It seemed entirely possible that they had changed their appearances by now.

"They were the result of a United States Intelligence project that revolved around creating military capes. As happens so often, this project ended in disaster when the capes went rogue, destroying the facility they were housed in and much of their data. We have some of their faces, as seen above, but not all of them. We also know that the group no longer possesses all of its original members, and that they have acquired a few more. Surveillance footage has seen them with multiple teams of villains, but by the time even first responders or our fastest movers can get to the scene, they are already gone. Wherever they visit, they have a different objective in mind, leading us to believe that they are working towards some larger, ultimate ambition."

 _The Hangmen_? Leah thought. _That sounds...scary._ She wished she could open her mouth and say something, anything, but she really, really didn't trust herself to. She opted to lean back in her chair and take a good look at the faces on the screen.

Each face of the known Hangmen took the appearance of a mug shot, and each of them - man or woman - had their heads shaved. There was a man, enormous bags under his hooded eyes, giving him a constantly exhausted - or derisive - expression. Another man who could only be described as "broad," even from the poor-quality photograph provided in the slideshow; he was beyond burly, . A woman, with piercing eyes and thin lips, who might have been beautiful were it not for the black stubble where her hair used to be and the sly smile that none of the others wore. Each of them had codenames listed beneath their photos, but they were redacted, blacked out by dark ink, as though the photos had been photographed again to be placed into this presentation.

"Unfortunately," Legend continued. "There is little else that I can tell you about them. As I mentioned before, they are secretive. All the U.S. government was willing to give us, beyond their appearances from a decade ago, was that they were trained in espionage, counterintelligence, and various forms of warfare before their trigger events. These men and women would be dangerous even had they not gotten powers, and we have been informed that none of them have insignificant abilities. As such, I will be staying in Madison, here at the Headquarters, for the duration that we can determine that they are here. Be on vigilant watch as you go about your normal patrols. Protectorate, if you see them, you are not to engage; you are to contact me immediately, and arrangements will be made. It will be _all_ of our jobs to stop them."

There was a series of murmured affirmations from the Protectorate capes.

"I will need access to patrol routines, for both yourselves, and for your Wards. Additionally, Dragon has provided me with these."

Another laser popped open a case on the table. From where they sat, the Wards could all see a series of armbands in a foam case, precisely enough for the Madison Protectorate and Wards. "You are not to go on patrol without these," he said. "Dragon will be closely monitoring each one for any abnormalities. She is already informed of your powers, and has adjusted each to your particular abilities. Your cape name is etched on each of yours-"

He paused, looking closer at the case.

"Except for one. Ah, that's right, we have a new Ward here today, don't we?"

Leah squeaked in surprise. "BREAD. I AM BREAD."  
Silence reigned in the room, as Leah reddened deeply. She did not dare look at the other Wards. "I MEAN. I am Whirlwind, sir!"

The silence that followed was broken only by Backdraft's failure to contain his laughter, which came out as a raw, uncontrolled snort. That triggered a wave of brief chuckles that drifted across the room, but that died away quickly; these were professionals, who were not about to let a humorous aside drag their focus away for very long. Legend, to his credit, expressed no mirth; he merely smiled at Leah, and floated into the air, landing three feet away from her.

"Whirlwind, then," he said, with a warm smile. "Congratulations on joining the Wards, Whirlwind. I'm sure you will do us proud." He held his hand out for her to shake.

Leah took it extremely nervously. _The_ Legend was shaking her hand-she had never expected this to happen. Hell, she had never expected to be a Ward. And to have a member of the Triumvirate shaking her hand on her very first day as an official cape? As nervous as she was, especially considering her gaff just seconds ago, she also couldn't help feeling a measure of awe. "Th-thank you, Legend, sir."

He nodded reassuringly at her, before drifting back to where he had been. On a whim, he turned mid-flight, and a cutting laser was emitted from his hand. With precise, controlled movements, he etched the name "Whirlwind" into the empty armband, before he touched down behind the podium at the front of the room.

"That's all for now, ladies and gentlemen. I will be conducting an investigation out of this office, as well, and I will be sure to brief you if anything further arises. That's all I have. Director Garner?"

One of the suits stood from his seat, and took the stage behind him. Garner wasn't known to be the toughest of PRT directors, but he was as no-nonsense as the hardest of them during a situation. Finding no need to extrapolate further on the actual topic, he merely said: "Thank you, Legend. Everyone, you know the drill. Protectorate, Wards, retrieve your armbands. Team leaders, I want those patrol schedules in Legend's hands within the hour. The rest of you, back about your duties. Dismissed."

Phantasm was the first of the Wards to stand. She strode briskly over to the director; she was difficult to hear over the hubbub of people rising from their seats as she spoke.

"Director, sir," she said, holding out a stack of papers she had brought to the briefing. "The Wards' patrol schedules for the next two weeks. I thought they might be pertinent."

Director Garner took them from her. "Good thinking, Phantasm," the Director replied, with a nod of his head. "It says here... you have a patrol planned for twenty minutes after the meeting?"

"Yes, sir," she replied. "I was going to acclimatize our new member to the goings-on of the city, and given her history, she might be able to point out a thing or two to us as well."

Director Garner smiled almost imperceptibly. From the lines on his face, Leah could tell that this was a very rare occurrence. "Very good, Phantasm," he said. "You're going to be a tremendous asset to the Protectorate, one day soon."

"Thank you, sir," she replied. She paused. "Thank you, Legend," she turned to the hero. "It has been an honor to meet you."

"You as well, Phantasm," Legend answered without missing a beat. "I've heard great things about you."

Exemplar's bright, red face stood out in stark contrast against his mask and costume. Not red from blush; his skin actually turned crimson.

Leah followed behind Exemplar, still flushed from her embarrassing outburst during the briefing. Noticing Exemplar's skin colour, she knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. After a few moments of deliberation, Leah tapped him gently on the shoulder and whispered to him as quietly as possible. "Uhm, it's probably not my place to ask, but uhm...is everything okay?"

His voice was _significantly_ higher pitched than a teenage boy's usually was when he responded: "I. Am. So. Jealous!"

Now, with the cacophony of noise and clatter about the room, Backdraft didn't bother to restrain his booming laughter. "Oh my god," he choked, when he was barely able to speak again. "I didn't expect anything from this meeting but horrible news, and I got comedy fff- friggin' gold out of it!" It seemed to take every ounce of his strength not to let the expletive free as Phantasm passed back into their group.

"I thought I told you all not to make us look like idiots," she huffed.

"Not my fault!" Backdraft howled, still laughing. "Not my fault, at all!"

Leah's red face deepened in colour. "I didn't mean to say what I did. I'm really sorry. I don't know what I was thinking..."

"You," Phantasm spun on her heel, pointing at Leah, "are fine. You two, though," her eyes darted between Exemplar and Backdraft, "seriously need to learn to act like heroes."

Exemplar fell silent, staring at the ground, his skin returning to it's normal color, then turning a shade towards blue.

"Jeez, 'Tasm, calm down," Backdraft replied, the mirth dying away from his face. "Not all heroes are the Triumvirate sort, you know. Look at, like, Brockton Bay. Have you _seen_ videos of Mouse Protector? She's a riot, like, all the time. We've got your back, okay? So don't worry."

Phantasm sighed. "Just... get your armbands, and head back down to the squad room. We'll talk when we get there."

Leah picked up her armband and followed the rest of the Wards out the door, still deeply embarrassed. If only she hadn't spent most of that meeting thinking about the bread she'd probably digested by this point. If only she hadn't had the bread for breakfast at all! What was she thinking, that they'd let her starve here? Not looking where she was going, she bumped into another Ward; looking up, she realized it was Backdraft, and flushed even harder. He'd found it all so amusing...she wondered how he saw her now.

"Mm!" he grunted, turning around. "You okay? Gotta look where you're going." Then he noticed the redness of her face. "Jeez, are you alright?" he asked again.

"Y...yeah. Just a bit...y'know." She turned even redder, not quite rivalling Exemplar's shade of it, but coming close. "I kind of said 'I am Bread' to Legend. Y'know."

His face split into a wide grin again as they arrived back at the squad room. "That was, like, something out of a movie," he answered, fighting back laughter. "Funny as hell. You can be pretty cute when you let your guard down, you know that?" He delivered the comment flippantly, as they walked out into the middle of the room.

"C-CUTE?" She froze before resuming operations. "I mean...uhm...thanks...?"

Backdraft looked back over his shoulder, giving her a curious look. "Uh..." he said, trying to parse her reaction. "Are you sure you're okay? Did something come loose during the meeting, or something- ow!"

Glaze smacked him upside the head as he walked past them. Apparently, he had been behind them the entire way.

"She likes you, you idiot," he said. "Be something more than a troll for once, huh?"

Rake suppressed a snigger as he walked past them in Glaze's footsteps.

"What?" Backdraft called after Glaze, but the mercury-costumed boy didn't answer as he slipped into his room.

Leah let out a terrified squeak and quickly scuttled away from Backdraft. "H-h-h-he was joking, I swear!" She hurried over to her door and opened it before anyone could say anything else. "I'LL BE IN HERE IN CASE ANYONE NEEDS ME. BYE."

Backdraft watched her go; his slightly curious expression had become a far more bamboozled one as the door slammed behind her.

Leah squealed in continued terror as she dropped onto her bed like a heavy rock. She regretted joining the Wards already: one day and not only had her entire world been turned upside down, but she also had to come to terms with the fact that she did actually have feelings for Backdraft. She wasn't sure when it had started; probably sometime during all those visits he kept paying her, over and over and over again. If she was honest with herself, part of the reason she joined the Wards was because it was _nice_ , being around him.

She just wasn't ready for anything else.

It wasn't long before there was a rap on her door. "Leah?" Nessie's voice. "Wanna come out? I need to talk to you."

Leah let out a small groan and lifted her face off the pillow. "I'll come out..." She pushed herself off the admittedly comfortable bed reluctantly and trudged over to the door, her legs feeling like tree trunks stapled to the floor. She put her hand on the door handle, and after some fidgeting, she opened the door to Nessie. "...please don't tease me about what just happened?"

Nessie blinked. She was still wearing her costume, but her visor was in her hand. "What happened?" she asked. " _What_ just happened?" she asked again, her emphasis changing the meaning of the question.

Leah fumbled with her words. "Uhm...Glaze was teasing me about something...it's fine...it doesn't really matter..." She rubbed her eyes tiredly. It was night, and she had had a long day. That being said, she remembered something about a patrol. She straightened up, trying to look awake. "Is this about the patrol...?"

"It is," Nessie answered, though an expression of concern had crossed her face. "Is his teasing bothering you? I could have a word with him about it."

Leah sighed. "Honestly...the damage is already kind of done and I don't really want to talk about it right now..." She shifted uneasily, looking around for hints of the boys. Any of the boys. She was mildly terrorized by the thought of seeing Backdraft at the moment. She had no clue what was going through his head at the moment, and based on her actions earlier, she was pretty sure she convinced no one (including herself) that Glaze had been lying. She sighed again and looked at Nessie. "It's okay, really. Uhm...so what do I do in this patrol...thing?"

"It's just routine," Nessie reassured her, allowing her to change the subject. "We go out, establish a presence. You don't usually need to do anything, most of the time. Just sort of... be there. Sometimes people will approach you with a problem. I'll make the decision if we handle it, if that happens, or if we pass it up the chain. Given this is your first outing, it'll probably wind up getting passed to the Protectorate, for now. They'll understand. If it's something easy, maybe we stress test you in an actual low-key trouble situation. That sound okay with you?"

Leah nodded. "Sounds good." She paused for one moment, remembering the patrols she'd seen out and about. "I know the Wards-we-usually go out in teams of like...two...?"

"Usually," Nessie replied. "But tonight I think we'll go with a larger group, just in case. Quillokka needs to take her turn tonight, too, and I want to bring Backdraft along, because he knows what areas you tended to haunt. We'll probably go through there, and see what you can show us, if you think of anything."

"B-b-b-backdraft?!" Leah was hyperventilating. "U-uhm. Can I perhaps request someone else to join us tonight? I..." She gulped. "Something kind of h-happened earlier, with him and Glaze. I promise I'll sort it out, in...in the morning. Can I...?"

Nessie's eyes narrowed. "Unless you want to tell me what kind of drama is going on, I'm not sure I should. We're going to be heroes, so we can't let personal issues get in the way of our professions. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I...I..." Leah gulped. She couldn't risk this. While she may regret entering the Wards, she needed this for Danny. She didn't know whether or not she could trust Nessie just yet with the whole Backdraft nonsense, so she had to keep mum. She took a deep breath. "Uhm...I'm sorry. I understand where you're coming from. I'll deal..."

Nessie nodded approvingly. She slipped on her armband. "Surprisingly comfortable," she remarked. "As expected of Dragon, I suppose." She tapped a button on it. "Backdraft, Quillokka, report to the squad room immediately."

The two came out of the rooms, on different sides of the squad room, at almost the same time. They, too, were still in costume. Backdraft saw Leah, and scratched the back of his neck nervously. Quillokka stretched her arms above her head, then rotated one shoulder. "Ready to go?" she asked, as though unaware of the awkwardness that hung in the air.

Leah stoically made sure not to make eye contact with him. One look and she was almost sure she would either break down in her resolve and request to go back to her room or she'd end up blurting out yet some other uncomfortable truth, as she seemed to have been in the habit of since she came here.

Socialization was hard.

"I'm ready," she said, her voice wavering.

Nessie nodded. She placed her visor over her eyes.

"Alright," she said, turning and walking towards the door. She made a hand gesture, extending two fingers and drawing a circle in the air above her with them. "Let's move out."

Even though the sun had long since set, the air was still damp as they set out. Phantasm had provided Whirlwind with a fairly basic mask to cover her face. It was little more than cloth, but designed to be anything between a half-mask, a hood, or a full balaclava. It was easy to sweat in the heavy humidity, but it was nothing that any of them weren't already accustomed to.

"It's hot," Quillokka remarked, but it wasn't a complaint. The uncomfortable air meant that people would largely be staying indoors, and that suspicious or hostile movement would be easier to see coming. She had six sheathes at her back, which she had filled with the spikes that she generated from beneath her skin, forming them into blades like single-edged knives, in case she needed them immediately.

"It is," Phantasm agreed curtly, without continuing.

"Not so bad," Backdraft muttered.

"Says the one immune to fire," Quillokka responded sardonically. "I still don't think you feel heat."

Leah had pulled the mask down to a half-mask position, letting her hair breathe. Vanity for vanity's sake, she supposed-she'd never had hair as clean as this, and part of her just wanted to let it be seen.

Avoiding Backdraft was more of a chore than she realized. The longer they were out together the easier it was to be calm, but it was harder to not look at him. She had snuck several glances at him by this point, trying to gauge what was going through his head. She wished she had one of those powers that let one see through a person or figure out what they were thinking. It would be easier than being Whirlwind.

Her eyes re-acclimatized to the dark as they patrolled. It was easier than she thought it would be, but she had only been out of the streets for a day. She kept an eye out, instincts honed from years out on the streets. She felt self-aware, tense, almost paranoid. This was her element, what she was used to.

They fell silent. After a few blocks, Nessie spoke into her armband, reporting their position. "Nothing unusual," she added. There was no response from the armband, and she didn't look like she had anticipated one. Another block, and still nothing. No people, even. The streets were... barren. At this time of night, there was usually at least a few homeless folk sleeping in alleys and on benches, but tonight, the streets were utterly deserted.

"Something feels wrong," Leah said, noting the utter emptiness of the streets. She had been here before; she had spent a night sleeping in an alleyway that was just off the corner. Even when she was around, there were people. People too tired or too cold to move from their chosen spots. Children too oblivious to threats like herself. Stray passersby. "Too quiet. I don't like it."

"Now that you mention it," Backdraft answered her, the drama forgotten. "There's usually a few stragglers out this late at night, aren't there? Folks looking for a late-night drink, bar-hoppers, bums - uh, sorry. Like, homeless people. Whirlwind?" He turned to her, for her expertise.

"Wait." Leah closed her eyes, and the wind picked up around the Wards-or rather, what felt like wind. In reality it was her telekinesis that was warping the air around the four of them, encasing them in a miniature storm that didn't seem to affect the Wards, but made everything else in the bubble ripple gently. She took a deep breath. "I'm shielding us, just in case. And you're right," she said, turning to Backdraft with an air of confidence she hadn't felt since she left the streets. "I come...used to...come here once every month or so, for food and shelter and the like. There's usually... _people_."

"That's awesome," Backdraft said. "Phantas-" he began, but he was interrupted by what sounded like the report of a gun not far away.

"Down!" Phantasm screeched, and the entire team hit the ground. A few seconds later, Backdraft was back up on his feet.

"No zip," he said. "No bullet came this way. Don't think they're shooting at us."

Phantasm climbed to her feet. "Proceed with caution," she advised, and she began to move forward slowly again. "Defensive formation. Backdraft, crank up the heat, and take the front. Quillokka, you cover Whirlwind. Whirlwind, keep doing what you're doing, it's a good defensive measure I didn't know we had. I'm going to do my thing."

That glimmering light again, and she had vanished.

Whirlwind intensified the storm, forcing the wind speed to go up but making sure it didn't affect her teammates. She looked at Backdraft and Quillokka as she did so. "I'll need you guys to stay within 50 feet of me, or it won't work," she said to them. "I can't go further than that."

The teammates she could see each turned her way to cast her a nod, before proceeding forward, step by step, their eyes scanning their surroundings. They passed into an intersection. A second later, Backdraft happened to cast a look upward. "Is there a man, on top of that buil-"

Before he could finish his sentence there was a burst of air, and Quillokka was gone.


End file.
